^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  4f, 

Presented    by~"~^r''S^\6^,(2^^^V^^(7\Wor\ 

EL 

Dmiston .■••-.. T::. 


Universal  Beliefs; 


THE  GREAT  CONSENSUS. 


BY 

REY.  E.  F.  BURR,  D.  D.. 

AUTHOR   OF   "ECCE   CCELUM,"   ETC. 


Veteres  opiniones  sunt  jam  usque  ab  heroicis  ductae  temporibus, 
eaque  et  Populi  Romani,  et  omnium  gentium  firmatse  consensu. 

CICERO. 

Left  Himself  without  a  witness? 

Who  could  dream  so  drear  a  thing 
As  that  God,  the  Wise  and  Righteous, 

Would  the  blind  to  judgment  bring? 

ANON. 


AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY, 

150   NASSAU    STREET,    NEW   YORK. 


COPYRIGHT,  1SS7, 
BY  AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY. 


THE  GREAT  CONSENSUS 

AS  TO 

I.  Superhuman  Beings " 

II.  Supreme  Deity 23 

III.  Earthly  Providence 47 

IV.  Religious  Worship 7^ 

V.  Efficacious  Prayer 9^ 

VI.  Infallible  Oracles "-5 


VII.  Immortal  Souls ^53 

VIII.  Litnited  Probation 


185 


IX.  Possible  Salvation 7 ^^^ 

X.  Mfiin  Ethics ^^7 

XI.  Realization ^  ^ 


PREFACE 


I.  It  is  hoped  that  no  reader  of  the  following 
pages  will  do  as  some  have  done — will  infer  from 
the  fact  that  all  systems  of  religion  have  some 
good  in  them  that  they  are  all  equally  good,  or 
even  that  it  cannot  reasonably  be  claimed  that 
while  one  is  from  above  all  the  others  are  from 
beneath.  This  certainly  would  be  very  poor  logic. 
A  system  may  have  some  good  elements,  and  yet 
as  a  whole  be  very  bad.  Truth  is  not  such  a  Mi- 
das as  to  turn  all  it  touches  into  gold.  It  may, 
practically,  be  cancelled,  and  more  than  can- 
celled, by  errors  closely  bound  up  with  it;  just  as 
sundry  excellent  soldiers  in  an  army  may  not  pre- 
vent it  from  being  a  terrible  scourge;  just  as  sun- 
dry good  traits  in  a  citizen  may  not  prevent  his 
becoming  a  public  nuisance;  and  just  as  sundry 
chemical  elements,  in  themselves  w^holesome,  may 
not  prevent  the  compound  to  which  they  belong 
from  acting  as  a  deadly  poison.  The  non-Chris- 
tian religions  are  poisons,  despite  the  good  ele- 
ments they  contain. 

II.  It  is  also  hoped  that  every  reader  of  the 
following  pages  will  find  in  them  a  sufiicient  an- 


6  PREFACE. 

swer  to  a  common  excuse  for  neglecting  personal 
religion.  The  neglecter  points  to  the  number  of 
Christian  denominations.  "How  widely  they 
differ  among  themselves  as  to  what  is  believed ! 
With  what  confidence  and  zeal  each  sect  defends 
its  own  peculiarities!  The  very  same  passage  of 
Scripture  has  exactly  opposite  meanings  in  the 
thought  of  different  people,  many  of  whom  are 
very  intelligent  and  conscientious." 

So  the  man  professes  himself  perplexed.  He 
does  not  know  what  to  think.  How  can  a  plain 
man  like  himself  see  his  way  through  such  a  fog 
of  religious  notions!  Is  he  not  excusable  for  feel- 
ing uncertain  when  beaten  about  by  so  many  con- 
flicting winds  of  doctrine  ? 

This  is  tlie  way  men  sometimes  talk  when 
urged  towards  personal  religion  by  some  Chris- 
tian friend.  What  answer  does  he  make?  Of 
course  he  does  not  pretend  to  deny  that  consider- 
able differences  of  religious  opinion  exist  among 
even  intelligent  and  good  men,  and  that  these 
differences  are  often  emphasized  with  no  little 
heat.  Perhaps  he  inquires  whether  his  friends 
propose  to  liave  no  opinion  whatever  in  science 
or  art  or  education  or  politics  because  there  is  a 
margin  of  debatable  and  debated  ground  about 
eacli.  But  certainly  he  proceeds  to  point  out  that 
the  differences  among  the  chief  Christian  denom- 


PREFACE.  7 

inations  relate  mostly  to  secondary  matters ;  that 
in  regard  to  matters  of  the  most  primary  and  fun- 
damental character  the  sects  are  perfectly  agreed. 
Nay,  on  examination,  he  finds  that  he  can  go  still 
farther,  and  can  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  not 
only  are  all  the  great  Christian  sects  agreed  on 
certain  main  points  of  religious  belief,  but  that 
the  same  is  true  of  all  the  religions  and  nations  of 
the  world.  That  there  is  a  realm  of  superhuman 
beings ;  that  at  the  head  of  this  realm  stands  a 
personal  Being  who  is  wonderfully  above  all  oth- 
ers; that  this  supreme  Person  is  active  in  human 
affairs;  that  worship,  public  and  private,  is  to  be 
paid  to  Him ;  that  prayer  may,  in  a  large  degree, 
secure  from  him  the  particular  blessings  asked  for; 
that  he  has  sent  infallible  messages  to  men ;  that 
men  possess  immortal  souls ;  that  such  souls, 
though  exceedingly  sinful,  can  be  saved  as  to 
both  character  and  circumstances ;  and  that  the 
opportunity  for  such  salvation  does  not  extend 
beyond  the  present  life — such  doctrines  are  the 
common  possession  of  mankind.  They  are  a  kind 
of  universal  currency.  They  are  the  heirlooms  of 
the  race.  They  defy  the  tooth  of  time.  They 
survive  all  storms,  all  accidents,  and  even  all 
depravities.  No  political  or  social  or  religious 
revolutions  disturb  them  in  the  least.  They  un- 
derlie all  governments,  speak  in  all  tongues,  and 


8  PREFACE. 

flourish  ill  all  climates.  They  have  unrelaxing 
grip  on  all  grades  of  faculty  and  culture  and  social 
position.  In  short,  they  seem  as  durable  as  human 
nature  itself,  and  subject  to  no  greater  modifica- 
tions. 

Does  one  feel  that  a  doctrine  must  be  uncer- 
tain if  it  is  respectably  disputed  ?  Would  it  take 
a  stumbling-block  out  of  his  way  to  find  a  realm 
of  religious  belief  in  which  practically  all  men  are 
at  home  ?  Here  is  such  a  realm.  Here  is  a  sea 
on  which  one  is  not  beaten  about  by  conflicting 
winds  of  doctrine.  All  the  winds  are  blowing,  but 
they  are  all  blowing  in  the  same  direction.  Be- 
hold the  unanimity  you  long  for.  See  that  it  is  as 
wide  as  the  world.  See  that  it  relates  to  main 
things.  If  you  are  disposed  to  allow  weight  to  the 
disscHsus^  should  you  not  also  allow  weight  to  the 
mightier  consensus  ?  We  are  not  now  asking  you 
to  accept  matters  in  dispute  between  Christians ; 
we  are  only  asking  you  to  accept  and  suitably  act 
on  such  doctrines  as  carry  the  faith  not  only  of  all 
Christendom,  but  also  of  all  heathendom  and  of 
any  other  -dom  under  heaven.  Believe  with  the 
unspeakable  majority.  And  do  more  than  that 
majority  does— give  us  conduct  to  match.  And 
when  you  have  gotten  so  far  you  are  not  very  far 
from  Christ. 

LvMi:,  Conn. 


SUPERHUMAN   BEINGS. 


Eloc  6e  ot'TOi  oi  ov6sv  alio  oio/ievoi  elvai  ^  ov 

uv  dvvuvTai  anpL^  toIv  x^polv  TiajSeaBat.  PLATO. 

Those  are  profane  who  think  that  nothing  exists  save 
what  they  can  lay  hold  of  with  their  hands. 


Nihil  in  omni  mundo  melius  esse  quam  se  cogitare,  de- 
mentia est.  CICERO. 

It  is  madness  to  think  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  whole 
universe  better  than  ourselves. 


To  an  innumerable  company  of  angels.  paul. 


UNIVERSAL    BELIEFS. 


I.  SUPERHUMAN  BEINGS. 

Our  Scriptures  speak  of  a  class  of  personal 
beings  called  angels.  They  are  described  as  su- 
perior to  men,  very  numerous,  immortal,  general- 
ly invisible  to  us,  exceedingly  interested  in  human 
affairs,  sharply  divided  into  the  two  classes  of 
good  and  bad.  And  the  bad  have  a  great  chief, 
one  of  whose  names  is  Satan,  and  from  whose 
malice  and  activity  men  have  much  to  fear. 

The  Mohammedan  nations  accept  entire  this 
Bible  teaching.  "The  whole  doctrine  concern- 
ing angels,  Mohammed  and  his  disciples  have 
borrowed  from  the  Jews.''  Gabriel,  Michael, 
Azrael,  and  Israfil  stand  at  the  head  of  the  good 
angels,  Eblis  at  the  head  of  the  bad.  Both  claSvS- 
es  are  very  numerous.  Beneath  these  are  the 
genii,  who  live  on  the  earth,  are  mortal  and  sin- 
ful like  men,  but  are  vastly  stronger  and  wiser 
and  more  ethereal  than  ourselves.  Both  genii  and 
angels  are  invisibly  active  in  human  affairs,  and 
give  us  great  occasion  both  to  hope  and  to  fear. 


12  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

As  to  all  the  great  polytheistic  nations,  they 
have  substantially  the  same  views.  Their  many 
gods  are,  in  general,  the  equivalents  of  the  Bibli- 
cal angels  and  of  the  Moslem  angels  and  genii. 
Among  the  ancients,  the  Greeks  and  Romans  sup- 
posed the  earth  to  be  populous  with  superhuman 
beings.  The  waters,  the  forests,  the  mountains, 
the  valleys,  the  air,  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  the 
heavenly  bodies,  were  thought  to  be  occupied  by 
them  in  vast  numbers.  They  were  fauns,  dryads, 
satyrs,  naiads,  daemons,  lares  and  penates,  dii  ma- 
jores — a  hundred  names,  standing  for  a  realm  of 
personal  beings  quite  superior  to  men,  undying, 
having  large  dealings  with  the  world,  though  by 
us  unseen,  some  mischievous  and  others  benevo- 
lent. 

And  this  is  a  fair  specimen  of  how  all  known 
nations  have  believed  from  the  earliest  times  down 
to  the  present.  The  popular  imagination  and 
faith,  everywhere  and  always,  have  been  satura- 
ted, not  only  with  the  idea  of  elves  and  fairies  and 
gnomes  and  peris  and  obis  and  manitous,  but  also 
with  the  idea  of  a  spiritual  realm  of  far  more  dig- 
nified beings  commonly  invisible  to  men  and  su- 
perior to  them— like  Sorush  and  Mordad  and 
Bcshter  of  the  ancient  Persians,  or  Al  Ilihat  of 
the  ancient  Arabs.  Says  Prof.  Tiele,  a  careful 
modern   inquirer,   "No  tribe  or   nation  has  yet 


SUPERHUMAN    BEINGS.  I3 

been  met  with  destitute  of  belief  in  any  higher 
beings,  and  travellers  who  asserted  their  existence 
have  been  afterwards  refuted  by  facts."  Begin- 
ning at  the  lowest  class  of  living  beings  and  as- 
cending from  terrace  to  terrace  of  dignity  towards 
man,  we  find  no  class  at  which  it  is  safe  to  stop 
and  say,  "  This  is  the  last  and  highest."  When 
then  we  come,  in  the  course  of  a  long  journey,  to 
man,  why  should  we  say  it  ?  In  the  absence  of 
all  evidence  to  the  contrary,  would  it  not  be  ra- 
tional and  scientific  to  conclude  that  further  as- 
cent would  continue  the  long  experience  of  the 
past,  and  another  still  loftier  terrace  of  life  come 
into  view  ?  Will  not  the  sun  rise  to-morrow,  O 
ye  who  have  known  seventy  years  of  sun-risings  ? 

"  But  there  is  a  break  at  man.  After  him  the 
sight  which  has  so  long  served  us  discovers  noth- 
ing. No  sense  discovers  anything.  Man  seems 
the  last  mile-stone.  Utter  vacuity  appears  be- 
yond him.  If  there  were  another  plane  of  being 
above  us  would  it  not  appear?" 

Certainly  invisibility  is  no  proof  of  non-exist- 
ence. All  the  great  natural  forces  are  unseen. 
Who  ever  saw  gravity  or  magnetism  or  chemi- 
cal affinity  ?  Also,  no  man  versed  in  natural  his- 
tory doubts  the  existence  of  living  beings  so  at- 
tenuated and  ethereal  as  to  be  beyond  our  sight 
even  when  aided  by  the  best  instruments;  just  as 


I^  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

110  such  man  doubts  the  existence  of  living  bodies 
so  small  as  to  be  beyond  our  most  potential  micro- 
scopes. Probably  as  large  a  realm  of  life  is  un- 
seen from  the  effect  of  attenuation  as  from  that  of 
smallness.  Plainly,  vigor  of  life  in  no  degree  de- 
pends  on  the  density  of  its  body.  The  man  who 
weighs  the  most  per  cubic  inch  is  by  no  means  the 
most  likely  to  have  the  vital  forces  in  greatest 
strength.  These  depend  no  more  on  density  than 
they  do  on  size;  and  as  a  gnat  may  be  as  intense- 
ly alive  as  an  elephant,  so  a  body  tenuous  to  the 
point  of  invisibility  by  our  sight,  however  aided, 
may  be  as  thoroughly  and  powerfully  living  as 
anything  within  our  view. 

As  it  is  altoo:ether  credible  that  there  is  a  realm 
of  life  lying  beyond  our  sense  of  sight,  so  it  is  al- 
together credible  that  there  is  such  a  realm  lying 
beyond  the  sense  of  hearing,  or  any  other  sense; 
in  fact,  beyond  all  our  senses.  Distance,  if  noth- 
ing else,  can  defy  and  defeat  them  all.  Things 
which  when  near  can  easily  be  noted  may  be  re- 
moved so  far  from  us  into  the  endless  abysses  of 
space  as  to  disappear  altogether  from  the  sphere  of 
our  observation.  If  it  be  a  mote,  a  few  inches  of 
removal  will  answer;  if  it  be  a  world,  some  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  miles  may  be  necessary;  but 
there  is  room  enough  out  yonder  to  allow  of  the 
annihilation,  so  far  as  our  senses  are  concerned, 


SUPERHUMAN    BEINGS.  I5 

of  any  object  whatever.  So  the  way  is  open  for 
us  to  receive  any  positive  evidence  that  may  exist 
in  favor  of  a  realm  of  beings  superior  to  man 
which  no  present  senses  of  ours  can  discover. 

Though  such  beings  may  be  naturally  without 
the  range  of  our  sense,  they  may  be  able  to  bring 
themselves,  on  occasion,  within  that  range.  They 
may  be  able  to  take  on  sensible  forms;  or,  without 
their  doing  this,  our  senses  may  be  so  quickened 
and  exalted  as  to  pass  their  usual  barriers  and  be- 
come aware  of  a  new  world.  That  both  of  these 
things  have  occurred,  innumerable  rumors,  tra- 
ditions, and  seeming  records  testify.  The  air  of 
all  known  times  and  countries  is  alive  with  such 
testimonies.  Sometimes  they  are  mere  whispers — 
subtile  hints  and  suggestions  of  facts  rather  than 
facts  themselves — and  sometimes  they  are  loud 
maeisterial  voices  that  declare  and  that  swear. 
Thus  the  Bible  tells  us  in  the  way  of  sober  nar- 
rative of  many  angelic  appearances  to  men  in 
forms  easily  discernible  by  human  senses  in  their 
usual  state,  as  well  as  of  men  whose  eyes  were 
specially  anointed  to  see  things  otherwise  invis- 
ible. The  sacred  books  of  other  religions  abound 
in  similar  accounts.  The  accounts  are  so  many 
and  so  widely  diffused,  they  come  to  us  from  so 
many  quarters  besides  magic  and  spiritualism, 
and  under  so  manv  forms  and  ways  of  verisimili- 


j6  universal  beliefs. 

tilde,  that  we  are  moved  to  say,  ''  Can  it  be  that 
nothing  of  this  is  historical?  Have  we  any  his- 
tory if  we  have  not  here  at  least  some  few  shreds 

of  it?" 

Such  considerations  gather  weight  as  we  no- 
tice how  they  accord  with  the  course  of  scientific 
discovery.  Strange  forms  of  life,  widely  different 
from  us  and  from  one  another,  and  in  some  re- 
spects greatly  superior  to  us,  have  been  continual- 
ly coming  to  light.  They  are  stronger  or  swifter 
or  hardier  or  keener-sighted  than  we  are:  some 
one  or  more  faculties  are  astonishingly  greater 
than  ours.  Why,  then,  should  we  be  stumbled 
at  the  idea  of  a  realm  of  angels  ?  Why  may  not 
a  race  of  beings  exist  in  which  all  these  special 
superiorities  over  us  are  combined  ?  The  discov- 
ery of  such  a  race  would  be  quite  in  the  line  of 
discoveries  already  made,  and  hardly  more  won- 
derful. We  can  well  understand  that  if  some  day 
a  curtain  should  rise,  not  thicker  than  that  which 
once  parted  the  later  astronomy  from  our  knowl- 
edge, or  this  Western  Hemisphere  from  the  Bast- 
tern,  we  should  find  ourselves  face  to  face  with 
that  great  spiritual  world  which  the  masses  in  all 
nations  accept,  which  the  Bible  affirms,  and  with 
the  idea  of  which  all  literatures  are  saturated. 

"  My  dwelling  had  been  situate  beside 
The  m.vriads  of  a  vast  metropolis  : 


SUPERHUMAN   BEINGS.  17 

But  now  astonished  I  beheld,  and  lo ! 

There  were  more  spirits  than  men,  more  habitants 

Of  the  thin  air  than  of  the  soHd  ground  : 

The  firmament  was  quick  with  Hfe.     As  when 

The  prophet's  servant  looked  from  Dothan  forth 

On  Syria's  thronging  multitudes,  and  saw 

The  squadrons  of  the  sky  around  the  seer 

Encamping,  thus  in  numbers  numberless 

The  hosts  of  darkness  and  of  light  appeared." 

But  one  does  not  need  to  die  in  order  to  dis- 
cover a  realm  of  superhuman  beings.  He  has 
only  to  lift  instructed  eyes  to  the  evening  firma- 
ment. There  glitter  many  worlds  far  brighter 
and  fairer  than  this,  worlds  which  in  size  and 
beauty  and  splendid  surroundings  are  as  much 
beyond  our  earth  as  the  most  regal  palace  is  be- 
yond the  most  wretched  hut.  Now  if  mere  na- 
ture made  man,  as  some  venture  to  say,  where 
nature  exists  in  her  finer  and  riper  forms  w^e  would 
naturally  expect  to  find  her  nobler  products.  The 
nobler  the  parent  the  nobler  the  child;  the  greater 
the  workman  the  greater  the  work.  If  a  wise  God 
made  men  and  the  worlds,  and  if  men  are  the  high- 
est of  his  creatures,  he  doubtless  has  placed  them 
in  the  noblest  of  the  astronomical  homes.  It 
would  be  an  unfitness  and  unreasonableness  to  do 
otherwise — to  build  a  palace  for  a  gnat  and  a  hovel 
for  a  man.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  find  man 
occupying  one  of  the  humbler  worlds.  Hence  we 
infer  that  he  is  not  the  highest  of  God's  creatures, 

Fiiiverenl  Beliore.  2 


j8  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

but  that  the  more  splendid  homes  in  the  distant 
heavens  are  suitably  allotted  to  the  more  splendid 
population.  So,  whether  mere  blind  nature  or  a 
wise  God  is  the  author  of  the  present  scheme  of 
thino-s,  we  are  entitled  to  believe  in  a  realm  of 
superhuman  beings  such  as  the  Bible  affirms,  such 
as  mankind  at  large  have  always  taken  for  grant- 
ed, and  such  as  the  principle  of  induction  and  the 
general  course  of  scientific  discovery  suggest.  As 
beyond  our  unaided  sight  there  are  many  worlds 
much  larger  than  our  own,  sweeping  on  grander 
orbits,  shining  with  a  more  magnificent  beam, 
and  ruling  with  a  more  potential  kingliness,  so, 
we  may  well  believe,  in  common  with  all  nations, 
were  our  senses  aided  to  pass  a  certain  curtain, 
we  should  discover  not  merely  a  vast  intelligent 
population,  but  multitudes  of  beings  vastly  supe- 
rior to  ourselves. 

"Tell  me,"  says  Micromegas,  an  inhabitant 
of  one  of  the  planets  of  the  great  Dog  Star,  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  in  the 
planet  Saturn,  at  which  he  had  just  arrived  in  a 
journey  through  the  heavens,  ' '  Tell  me,  how  many 
senses  have  the  men  on  your  globe?"  "We  have 
seventy-two  senses,"  answered  the  academician, 
"and  we  are  every  day  complaining  of  the  small- 
ncss  of  the  number.  Our  imagination  goes  far 
beyond  our  wants.    What  are  seventy- two  senses! 


SUPERHUMAN    BEINGS.  IQ 

and  how  pitiful  a  boundary,  even  for  beings  with 
such  limited  perceptions,  to  be  cooped  up  within 
our  ring  and  our  eight  moons !      In  spite  of  our 
curiosity,  and  in  spite  of  as  many  passions  as  can 
result  from  six  dozen  senses,   we  find  our  hours 
hang  very  heavily  on  our  hands  and  can  always 
find  time  for  yawning."      "I  can  very  well  be- 
lieve it,"  says  Micromegas,  "for  in  our  globe  we 
have  very  near  one  thousand  senses,  and  yet  with 
all  these  we  feel  continually  a  sort  of  listless  in- 
quietude and  vague  desire  which  are  for  ever  tell- 
ing us  that  we  are  nothing,  and  that  there  are  be- 
ings infinitely  nearer  perfection.    I  have  travelled 
a  good  deal  in  the  universe.     I  have  seen  a  good 
many  beings  far  beneath  us  and  many  as  much 
superior,  but  I  have  never  had  the  good  fortune 
to  find  any  who  had  not  more  desires  than  real 
necessities  to  occupy  their  life.     And,  pray,  how 
long  may  you  Saturnians  live,   with   your   few 
senses?"  continued  the  Sirian.     "Ah,  but  a  very 
short  time  indeed,"  said  the  little  man  of  Saturn, 
with  a  sigh.      "It  is  the  same  with  us,"  said  the 
traveller;  "we  are  for  ever  complaining  of  the 
shortness  of  life.     It  must  be  a  universal  law  of 
nature."      "Alas,"  said  the  Saturnian,  "  we  live 
only  five  hundred  great  revolutions  of  the  sun 
(about  fifteen  thousand  years  of  our  counting). 
You  see  well  that  this  is  to  die  almost  the  mo- 


20  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

ment  one  is  born.  Our  existence  is  a  point,  our 
duration  an  instant,  our  globe  an  atom.  Scarcely 
have  we  begun  to  pick  up  a  little  knowledge 
when  death  rushes  in  upon  us  before  we  can  have 
acquired  anything  like  experience.  As  for  me,  I 
cannot  venture  even  to  think  of  any  project.  I 
feel  myself  but  like  a  drop  of  water  in  the  ocean; 
and  especially  now  wdien  I  look  to  you  and  to 
myself  I  really  feel  quite  ashamed  of  the  ridicu- 
lous appearance  which  I  make  in  the  universe.'* 
"  If  I  did  not  know  that  you  were  a  philosopher,'* 
replied  Micromegas,  "I  should  be  afraid  of  dis- 
tressing you  when  I  tell  you  that  our  life  is  seven 
liundred  times  longer  than  yours.  But  what  is 
even  that  ?  And  when  w^e  come  to  the  last  mo- 
ment, to  have  lived  a  single  day  and  to  have  lived 
a  whole  eternity  amounts  to  the  very  same  thing. 
I  have  been  in  countries  where  they  live  a  thou- 
sand times  longer  than  with  us,  and  I  have  always 
found  them  murmuring,  just  as  we  do  ourselves. 
But  you  have  seventy-two  senses,  and  they  must 
have  told  you  something  about  your  globe.  How 
many  properties  has  matter  with  you  ?"  ' '  If  you 
mean  essential  properties,"  said  the  Saturnian, 
"without  which  our  globe  could  not  subsist,  we 
count  three  hundred— extension,  impenetrability, 
mobility,  gravitation,  divisibility,  and  so  forth." 
"  That  small  number,"  replied  the  gigantic  trav- 


supe:rhuman  beings.  21 

eller,  ' '  may  be  sufficient  for  the  views  which  the 
Creator  must  have  had  with  respect  to  your  nar- 
row habitation.  Your  globe  is  little;  its  inhabi- 
tants are  so  too.  You  have  few  senses,  your  mat- 
ter has  few  qualities,  and  your  lives  have  few 
years.  In  all  this  Providence  has  suited  you  most 
happily  to  each  other."  The  academician  was 
vastly  astonished  at  what  the  traveller  told  him. 
At  length,  after  communicating  to  each  other  a 
little  of  what  they  knew  and  a  great  deal  of  what 
they  knew  not,  and  reasoning  as  well  and  as  ill  as 
philosophers  usually  do,  they  resolved  to  set  out 
together  on  a  little  tour  of  the  universe.  In  due 
time  they  will  doubtless  arrive  at  the  earth  and 
lift  up  both  hands  with  astonishment  to  find  how 
inferior  to  themselves  in  the  scale  of  being  are 
even  our  members  of  scientific  academies. 

So  runs,  substantially,  a  philosophic  parable 
of  the  last  century.  Voltaire,  with  all  his  bitter 
prejudice  against  the  supernatural,  seems  to  have 
had  no  such  prejudice  against  the  superhuman, 
and  to  have  seen  how  easy  and  natural  it  is  to 
believe  that  man  is  one  of  the  least  considerable 
inhabitants  of  that  great  universe  which  has  in  it 
so  many  grander  homes  than  our  own. 

Alps  rise  o'er  Alps  till  the  remoter  summits 
are  lost  in  clouds.  Circles  in  the  ocean  go  on  wi- 
denino;  out  from  the  centre  of  disturbance  till  a 


22  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

wave  appears  that  touches  every  shore  with  its 
sublime  rouud.  Standing  in  the  moonlight  with- 
in some  roofless  ancient  amphitheatre,  we  see  ter- 
race after  terrace  rising  above  us  in  ever-expand- 
ing sweeps  till  at  la-st  the  sweep  is  among  the 
stars.  So,  from  where  we  stand  stretch  upward 
and  away  the  terraces  of  personal  being.  Its  sum- 
mits go  climbing  up  the  heavens  in  long  perspec- 
tive. Amplitudes  of  faculty  and  position  greater 
than  our  own  climb  away  from  us  in  every  direc- 
tion towards  the  infinite.  Is  there  not  an  Infi- 
nite? 


II.  SUPREME  DEITY. 


Ere  iar^  avroyevTjg,  hbg  iKyova  iravra  TervKToi. 

ORPHEUS. 

There  is  one  self-existent  Being ;  everything  generated 
has  been  produced  by  this  one. 


Summum  Deum  et  philosophi  et  poetae,  et  denique  qui 
deos  colunt,  saepe  fatentur.  lactantius  firmianus. 

Both  philosophers  and  poets,  and  indeed  all  who  wor- 
ship gods,  often  confess  a  supreme  Deity. 


This  Lord  your  God  is  God  of  gods.  moses. 


SUPREME   DEITY.  25 


II.  SUPREME  DEITY. 

The  doctrine  of  one  infinite  personal  God  be- 
longs to  Christians,  Jews,  and  Mohammedans. 
The  doctrine  of  a  supreme  Person — of  at  least  one 
Person  who  is  vastly  superior  to  all  others  and 
easily  king  over  them  all — belongs  to  Imviajiity. 
All  the  nations  confess  him,  all  the  existing  reli- 
gions take  him  for  granted.  Individuals  here  and 
there  are  atheistic;  perhaps  some  small  and  rude 
tribes  may  be  found  without  gods  of  any  sort;  but 
these  make  no  figure  on  the  broad  face  of  the 
world  and  in  the  presence  of  its  overwhelming 
majorities. 

So  it  has  always  been,  as  far  as  history  and 
tradition  throw  light.  ' '  All  nations,  as  far  back 
as  we  can  trace  their  existence,  have  a  religion 
and  a  God.  During  the  present  century  the  an- 
cient records  of  Egypt,  of  Assyria,  and  the  whole 
of  Mesopotamia  have  been  disinterred  and  read; 
researches  in  Persia  have  brought  to  light  the 
condition  of  all  Iranian  tribes  prior  to  the  refor- 
mation of  Zoroaster;  while  the  Vedas,  the  reli- 
gious poems  of  their  kindred  Indian  Aryans,  have 
been  translated;  and  profound  researches  into  the 


26  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

ancient  literature  of  China  have  unveiled  the  doc- 
trine and  worship  before  and  since  Confucius;  and 
the  result  of  the  whole  is  that  we  find  religion  in 
these  nations  from  the  time  of  their  existence  as 
separate  communities." 

' '  Not  a  few  learned  and  laborious  inquirers 
have  for  the  last  seventy  years  been  engaged  in 
digging  out  the  remains  of  old  religions  from  amid 
the  debris  of  popular  traditions,  of  sacred  books  in 
forgotten  languages,  and  of  those  languages  them- 
selves in  which  curious  relics  of  still  older  strata 
have  become  imbedded.  The  Guzan,  the  Tripi- 
taka,  the  Zendavesta,  the  Vedas,  have  been  stud- 
ied and  analyzed.  The  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt, 
the  wedfje-covered  slabs  and  bricks  of  Nineveh 
and  Babylon,  the  rock-inscriptions  of  Persia  and 
India,  have  yielded  up  their  secrets.  The  tradi- 
tions of  the  Aztecs  and  Zulus,  the  wild  ideas  and 
wilder  practices  of  the  Tartars,  the  Red  Indians, 
and  even  the  Australian  aborigines,  have  been 
collated  and  compared.  Mythologies — Greek, 
Celtic,  Scandinavian,  Indian — have  been  drawn 
together  and  have  supplied  much  interesting  in- 
formation. The  primitive  Aryan  culture  has 
been  pieced  out  from  the  scattered  elements  of  the 
Aryan  tongues,  and  attempts  in  the  same  direc- 
tion have  been  made  with  the  Semitic.  And  one 
result  is  that  a  certain  discussion,  once  fierce,  is 


SUPREME   DEITY.  27 

now  almost  obsolete.     It  is  plain  that  there  is  a 
religion  of  some  sort  everywhere  among  men." 

These  testimonies  from  the  Transactions  of 
a  learned  society  mean  a  practically  universal 
recognition  of  deity,  as  one  or  many,  through  all 
known  ages.  Many  gods  have  been  the  rule;  but 
always  a  gradation  has  been  understood  to  exist 
among  them,  and  at  the  head  of  all  has  seemed 
to  stand  One  who  is  their  wisest  and  mightiest 
and  kingliest.  In  the  Valhalla  or  the  Olympus 
there  is  always  one  throne  higher  than  any  other. 
Odin  occupies  it,  or  Zeus,  or  Baal,  or  Osiris,  or 
Mithra,  or  Brahma,  or  Ti,  or  Allah,  or  Yahveh, 
(Jehovah.) 

Different  views  have  been  held  as  to  the  char- 
acter and  various  attributes  of  this  supreme  Per- 
son. Some  have  thought  him  more  or  less  un- 
righteous; some  have  imagined  him,  in  both  char- 
acter and  natural  faculties,  far  inferior  to  the  God 
of  the  Bible;  some  have  represented  him  by  an 
ugly  caricature  of  the  human  form,  or  even  by 
brutes  of  the  lowest  type,  some  by  the  golden 
sun,  some  by  such  graceful  and  shapely  statues  as 
classic  antiquity  fashioned  from  marble  and  ivory 
and  gold;  while  Jews  and  Christians  attribute  to 
him  all  conceivable  and  inconceivable  perfections 
which  they  think  it  profanity  to  attempt  to  ex- 
press by  any  outv/ard  figure  whatever.     But  under 


28  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

all  these  differences  exists  the  common  idea  of  a 
Person  greater  than  any  other,  vastly  greater  than 
men,  on  whom  men  heavily  depend  and  whom  it 
mightily  concerns  them  to  please.  This  great  idea 
dominates  the  whole  world  of  mankind.  Its  co- 
lossal shadow  lies  across  all  the  ages,  all  the  coun- 
tries, and  all  the  literatures;  for,  as  will  be  admit- 
ted, no  account  is  to  be  made  in  so  large  a  case  of 
individual  atheists,  whether  called  sages  or  sava- 
ges, thinly  scattered  among  such  immense  popu- 
lations. 

Some  indeed  say  that  the  Buddhists  are  athe- 
ists. It  would  be  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that 
Buddha  himself  was  an  atheist.  But  to  his  fol- 
lowers he  himself  has  become  a  supreme  deity,  to 
whom  temples  are  built  and  worship  is  paid. 
"  He  who  had  left  no  place  in  the  whole  universq 
for  a  divine  Being  was  deified  himself  by  the  muU 
titude,  who  wanted  a  Person  whom  they  could 
worship,  a  Being  whose  help  they  might  invoke, 
a  Friend  before  whom  they  might  pour  out  theii 
most  secret  griefs,"  says  Max  Miiller.  Grimm 
says  that  the  Scandinavian  and  Teutonic  religions 
were  originally  the  same;  while  Tacitus  says  that 
the  supreme  God  of  the  Germans  was  a  Being 
who  is  "master  of  the  universe,  to  whom  all 
things  are  submissive."  In  all  the  Teutonic 
tongues  this  Being  was  called  God. 


SUPREME   DEITY.  29 

Until  lately  we  were  not  as  well  prepared  as 
we  now  are  to  deny  the  charge  of  atheism  as 
against  a  considerable  part  of  the  American  abo- 
riginal tribes.  An  extensive  inquiry  recently 
made  into  the  traditional  beliefs  of  the  early  pop- 
ulations of  both  North  and  South  America  shows 
that  they  generally,  if  not  universally,  held  to  a 
realm  of  invisible  beings  in  which  there  is  a  su- 
preme Person  far  above  all  others  in  faculties  and 
rank.  ^'The  grand  tradition  of  a  supreme  Being 
traceable  through  Accadian,  Assyrian,  Persian, 
Egyptian,  Hindoo,  Greek,  Roman  antiquities  has 
now  been  traced  through  the  traditions  of  the  un- 
lettered Indian  tribes  of  America." 

But  much  more  is  true.  It  is  now  generally 
allowed  by  students  in  the  most  ancient  literatures, 
languages,  traditions,  and  monuments  that  these 
point  to  a  time  when  all  men  held,  not  merely  to 
a  supreme  Person,  but  to  only  one  God  deserving 
of  worship.  Dorner  says,  "There  is  scarcely  a 
religion  in  which  relics  or  surmises  of  the  unity  of 
God  are  not  contained.  Traces  of  this  unity  are: 
among  the  Hindoos,  Brahma  or  Dyaus;  among 
the  Germans,  Thio  or  Zio;  among  the  Chinese, 
Tien;  among  the  Etruscans,  Tina;  among  the  Per- 
sians, Ormuzd;  among  the  Semites,  Chon;  among 
the  Chaldseans  and  Greeks,  Fate."  Says  Max 
Miiller,  "There  must  be  one  God;  there  must  be 


20  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

one  unchangeable  Deity:  this  was  the  silent  con- 
viction  of  the  human  mind."  And  by  no  means 
was  it  always  a  silent  conviction.  It  has  man- 
aged to  speak  loudly  across  the  many  centuries, 
through  the  pens  of  not  a  few  scholars  whose  sym- 
pathies were  not  with  their  testimony.  Comte, 
while  asserting  that  men  began  as  fetish-worship- 
pers, confesses  that  India,  China,  and  other  coun- 
tries—containing the  majority  of  mankind— fur- 
nish little  or  no  support  to  the  assertion.  In  fact, 
they  furnish  a  contradiction  to  it.  Even  Comte 
himself  affirms  the  monotheism  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians.  Lucian  tells  us  that  originally  they 
had  no  statues  in  their  temples.  The  more  ancient 
the  monuments  the  more  free  are  they  from  signs 
of  polytheism ;  and  when  we  come  to  what  seem  the 
most  ancient  all,  as  to  the  pyramid  of  Cheops  and 
the  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  these  signs  wholly  dis- 
appear. In  a  hymn  contained  in  the  125th  chap- 
ter of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  and  which  is  said 
by  Egyptian  scholars  to  be  the  most  ancient  piece 
of  poetry  in  the  literature  of  the  world,  the  Deity 
is  described  as  the  maker  of  heaven  and  earth, 
and  the  natural  forces  as  his  instruments  in  the 
government  of  nature.  But  all  through  the  dark- 
est periods  the  priests  appear  not  to  have  shared 
the  polytheism  of  the  masses,  and  to  have  reserved 
to  themselves  and  a  few  others  a  holy  of  holies  in 


SUPREME   DEITY.  31 

religious  opinion,  over  whose  ark  rested  the  glory 
of  one  God.  Says  Jablonski,  "Those  men  most 
distinguished  for  wisdom  among  the  Egyptians 
acknowledged  God  to  be  an  eternal  Spirit,  prior 
to  all  things  which  exist,  who  created,  preserves, 
and  vivifies  everything." 

The  same  is  true  of  that  daughter  of  Egypt 
whom  we  call  Greece.  She  too  had  her  arcane 
theology  in  which  one  God  sat  enthroned.  An 
elect  few  of  priests,  philosophers,  and  princes  were 
initiated  into  what  were  known  as  Mysteries ;  and 
among  these  the  greatest  was  the  existence  of  one 
eternal  Spirit  from  whom  all  other  things  came. 
The  verses  sung  in  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries 
contained  this  passage:  "  Pursue  thy  path  rightly 
and  contemplate  the  King  of  the  world.  He  is 
One,  and  of  himself  alone:  and  to  that  One  all 
things  have  owed  their  being.  No  mortal  has 
beheld  him;  but  he  sees  everything."  As  the 
sun  sometimes  appears  dimly  wading  through 
deeps  of  clouds  and  at  other  times  shows  his  orb 
in  full  splendor,  so  all  through  the  Grecian  his- 
tory appears  the  great  thought  of  the  divine  unity 
in  the  teaching  of  such  men  as  Plato  and  Socrates 
and  Pythagoras.  But  back  of  Pythagoras  and 
Thales,  back  of  Homer  and  Hesiod,  we  seem  to 
come  to  a  wiser  time,  when  what  became  the 
property  of  the  few  was  yet  the  property  of  the 


-2  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

iiicLuv  —  that  wiser  time  when  to  the  Hellenic 
people  at  large  the  gods  were  not,  but  God  was. 
In  one  of  the  Orphic  fragments,  preserved  by 
Proclus,  we  find  that  "there  is  one  Power,  one 
Deity,  the  great  Governor  of  all  things."  And 
Eusebius  says  that  the  Greeks  were  not  w^orship- 
pers  of  images  before  Cecrops. 

Plutarch  gives  a  like  testimony  as  to  the 
earlier  Romans.  He  says  that  they  w^ere  forbid- 
den by  Numa  to  represent  Deity  under  the  form 
of  man  or  brute,  and  that  for  seventy  years  they 
had  neither  statue  nor  picture  of  him  in  their 
temples. 

In  the  old  Assyrian  and  Accadian  hymns, 
amid  signs  of  "gods  many  and  lords  many," 
there  is  still  the  echo  of  the  fundamental  thought 
of  One  who  alone  deserves  the  divine  name ; 
sometimes  even  more  than  this,  as  in  the  hymn, 

"  The  God,  my  Creator,  may  He  stand  by  my  side ! 
In  heaven  who  is  great  ?    Thou  alone  art  great ! 
On  earth  who  is  great?    Thou  alone  art  great ! 
When  thy  voice  resounds  in  heaven  the  gods  fall  prostrate ! 
When  thy  voice  resounds  on  earth  the  genii  kiss  the  dust!" 

Buddhism,  which  has  prevailed  so  extensively 
in  Eastern  Asia,  was  an  offshoot  from  Brahminism; 
Brahminism  itself  was  a  corrupt  offshoot  from  a 
still  earlier  religion,  of  which  the  most  ancient  of 
the  Vedas  is  the  best  surviving  exponent.     This 


SUPREME    DEITY.  ;^T, 

book,  the  Rig- Veda,  declares  that  the  names  of 
various  gods  are  merely  different  names  of  one 
and  the  same  Being:  *'Tliat  which  is  one  the 
sages  speak  of  in  many  ways;  they  call  it  Agni, 
Yama,  Matarisvan,  etc. ' '  If  not  practically  mono- 
theistic, as  Max  Miiller  seems  to  think  it,  the 
Rig- Veda  is  at  least  much  nearer  to  monotheism 
than  more  recent  Hindoo  Scriptures.  Schlegel 
says,  "It  cannot  be  denied  that  early  India  pos- 
sessed a  knowledge  of  the  true  God."  As  to  the 
aborigines  of  China,  what  the  Chinese  consider 
the  most  ancient  part  of  their  sacred  book,  called 
Shoo-king,  speaks  of  only  one  Deity  possessed  of 
all  natural  and  moral  perfections. 

The  object  of  the  most  ancient  Norse  worship 
was  the  "Author  of  all  things,  the  Eternal,  the 
living  and  awful  Being,  the  Being  that  never 
changes;  the  possessor  of  infinite  power,  bound- 
less knowledge,  and  inflexible  justice." 

In  short,  Larcher  is  borne  out  by  the  latest 
researches  in  declaring  that  the  most  ancient 
nations  were  not  worshippers  of  idols.  And  M. 
Naville,  the  eminent  Egyptologist,  in  his  "The 
Heavenly  Father,"  writes  thus:  "One  of  our 
fellow-countrymen  who  cultivates  with  equal 
modesty  and  perseverance  the  study  of  religious 
antiquities  has  procured  the  greater  part  of  the 
recent  works  published  on  this  subject  in  France, 

riiiverp.il  Ut'.io's.  -2 


34  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

Germany,  and  England.  He  has  read  them,  pen 
in  hand,  and,  at  my  earnest  request,  he  has  kind- 
ly allowed  me  to  look  over  his  notes,  which  have 
been  long  accumulating.  I  find  the  following 
sentence  in  the  manuscripts  which  he  has  shown 
me:  'The  general  impression  of  all  the  most  dis- 
tinguished mythologists  of  the  present  day  is  that 
monotheism  is  at  the  foundation  of  all  pagan 
mythology.'  " 

Prof  Rawlinson  concludes  his  examination  of 
the  subject  thus:  "Our  historical  survey  has 
shown  us  that  in  the  early  times,  everywhere,  or 
almost  everywhere,  belief  in  the  unity  of  God 
existed;  barbarous  nations  possessed  it  as  well  as 
civilized  ones;  it  underlay  the  polytheism  that 
attempted  to  crush  it,  retained  a  hold  on  lan- 
guage and  thought,  had  from  time  to  time  its 
special  assertors  who  never  professed  to  have  dis- 
covered it,  and  so  lingered  on,  gradually  becom- 
ing more  and  more  enfeebled,  until  a  fresh  rev- 
elation of  the  unity  was  made  by  the  gospel  of 
Christ." 

To  this  consensus  add  another — that  of  experi- 
ence. The  experience  of  multitudes  is  to  the 
effect  that  prayer  to  such  a  Supreme  Person  as 
the  Bible  describes  often  gets  answered  in  such  a 
way  as  implies  the  existence  of  the  Person  ad- 
dressed; also,  that  such  a  Being  is  needed  to  gov- 


SUPREME   DEITY.  35 

ern  the  universe  to  the  best  possible  issues  and 
away  from  the  worst;  also,  that  faith  in  such  a 
Being  is  needed  for  the  best  interests  of  the  world ; 
also,  that  great  generic  needs  in  nature  always 
have  over  agains.'  them  the  supplies  for  the  needs. 

Men,  in  cases  innumerable,  have  called  on 
God  for  favors  and  have  received  answers  so  cir- 
cumstantially related  to  their  requests  as  to  dem- 
onstrate his  existence.  Many  volumes  of  such 
cases  are  before  the  public.  The  lifelong  ex- 
periences of  George  Miiller  at  Bristol,  England, 
are  a  monumental  evidence  of  God—  considerably 
higher  than  the  pyramids. 

Such  a  God  as  the  Bible  declares  is  needed  to 
govern  this  great  universe;  so  to  manage  and 
guide  this  great  complex  of  forces  as  to  secure 
from  it,  on  the  whole,  good  issues.  What  other 
power  can  do  this?  What  else  than  the  All-mighty 
and  All -wise  can  guarantee  this  earth,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  whole  broad  astronomical  heavens, 
against  summing  up  at  last  as  an  infinite  disaster? 
Such  a  "madding  crowd"  of  gigantic  potencies, 
rushing  and  leaping  in  every  direction  and  every 
now  and  then  storming  away  into  outbreaks  of 
overthrow  and  desolation  that  appall  us — I  say, 
what  shall  warrant  us  that  they  will  not  at  last 
brino;  all  thiuQ^s  to  a  universal  hell?  Not  such 
wisdom  and  power  as  men  possess.     A  manifold 


;6  rXIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

experience  in  dealing  even  with  this  world  is 
enon-^h  to  make  it  plain  how  utterly  insufficient 
are  the  human  faculties  to  govern  and  shape  the 
destinies  of  even  so  limited  a  kingdom.  Men  can 
o-overn  men  after  a  rude  fashion;  they  can  subdue 
some  brutes  and  bend  to  their  will  to  a  certain 
extent  a  few  inanimate  forces;  but  when  it  comes 
to  adjusting  the  sum  total  of  the  terrestrial  forces 
into  a  balanced  unit,  and  guiding  the  wdiole 
towards  a  definite  end,  we  are  as  helpless  as  in- 
fants— helpless  even  to  see  what  the  proper  end 
is,  much  more  to  see  the  way  to  it  and  to  drive 
the  great  world-chariot  along  that  w-ay  when  dis- 
covered— much  more  helpless  than  Phaeton  was 
to  guide  well  the  chariot  of  the  sun.  Were  the 
reins  trusted  to  us,  we  w^ould,  doubtless,  drive  to 
destruction  and,  meanwhile,  set  the  world  on  fire. 
So  unequal  are  we  to  guide  the  affairs  of  even 
this  little  world  to  good  issues,  much  more  to  the 
very  best.  But  what  of  the  whole  broad  universe 
of  worlds?  Certainly  none  but  an  infinite  per- 
sonal God  can  make  it  sure,  or  even  probable, 
that  such  a  tremendous  maelstrom  of  forces  will 
not  at  last  sum  up  as  an  awful  curse.  He  can  do 
it.  He  can  make  the  cosmos  a  sublime  blessing. 
He  is  needed  /;/  oj'der  that  he  may  do  it. 

It  is  also  the  testimony  of  experience  W\2X  faith 
in  such  a  God  is  needed,  as  well  as  God  himself. 


SUPREME    DEITY.  37 

Multitudes  of  persons,  if  not  all,  need  this  faith  to 
restrain  them  from  evil  and  to  incite  them  to  good. 
The  tide  of  good  influences  within  us  is  found 
rising  as  the  idea  of  the  Scriptural  God  draws 
near  and  grows  large  and  vivid  to  our  faith,  and 
is  found  sinking  as  that  removes  and  lessens  and 
dims.  Experiences  to  this  effect  are  innumera- 
ble. The  world  has  also  found  out  by  sad  expe- 
rience, and  a  plenty  of  it,  that  atheism  endangers 
the  family  and  society  at  large  in  many  ways. 
Almost  every  intelligent  father  would  regard 
atheism  among  his  children  as  a  cloud  on  their 
prospects ;  most  parents  w^ould  think  it  a  very 
black  cloud.  If  that  family  should  become  a  na- 
tion his  views  would  not  alter.  Did  ever  states- 
man say  in  his  heart,  "  I  see  that  the  doctrine  of 
an  infinite  and  righteous  God  is  steadily  gaining 
ground  in  the  country.  This  is  alarming.  I 
tremble  for  the  consequences.  We  will  have  to 
whet  up  our  laws,  increase  our  police,  make  new 
prisons,  chains,  and  gibbets"  ?  Would  any  states- 
man that  deserves  the  name  talk  in  this  way? 
This  is  just  what  he  would  say  if  he  were  to  see 
the  land  becomins^  atheistic.  He  would  take  the 
fact  as  a  threat  at  the  morals  and  homes  of  the 
nation,  at  its  credit  and  business  and  order,  at 
property,  authority,  and  personal  safety.  For 
all  experience  goes  to  show  that  society  in  any 


38  UNIVERSAL    BELIEFS. 

desirable  form  could  not  long  exist  on  a  basis  of 
stark  atheism  among  the  masses.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  it  could  long  exist  in  any  form.  Nihil- 
ism and  atheism  are  twins;  when  one  is  present 
the  other  is  coming,  or  is  already  come,  or  has 
in  its  pocket  an  invitation  to  come.  Stormy  out- 
breaks of  depravity  and  disorder  in  a  godless  peo- 
ple may  be  delayed  for  a  time  by  various  influen- 
ces, as  volcanic  fires  may  for  a  while  be  kept 
down  by  heavy  superincumbent  strata  ;  but  the 
struggling  demons  will  at  last  gather  strength 
enough  to  burst  through  everything.  And  then 
Herculaneum  and  Pompeii  and  the  French  Revo- 
lution "with  all  its  terrors." 

Such  are  two  great  generic  needs  in  nature  to 
which  experience  testifies,  viz.,  the  need  of  God 
by  all  nature,  and  the  need  oi  faith  in  him  by  all 
men.  But  experience  also  testifies  that  every  real 
need  of  a  natural  class  of  beings  has  somewhere 
over  against  it  a  supply  for  that  need  or  the  natu- 
ral means  of  obtaining  it — water  for  the  fish,  air 
for  the  bird,  grass  for  the  cattle,  light  for  eyes, 
sounds  for  ears,  odors  for  nostrils,  beauty  and 
grandeur  to  meet  our  taste  for  such  things ;  ob- 
jects to  admire  and  love  and  trust  to  meet  our 
powers  for  admiring,  loving,  and  trusting;  and 
so  on  all  through  nature,  as  far  as  our  observation 
has  gone.     So  it  comes  to  pass  that  wherever  in 


SUPREME   DEITY.  39 

the  natural  world  a  scientist  discovers  a  great 
generic  need,  he  feels  authorized  to  assume  that 
somewhere  a  supply  for  it  exists  or  is  obtainable. 
If  nature  has  any  vacuum  incapable  of  being 
filled,  utters  any  cry  for  aid  which  does  not  in  the 
nature  of  things  admit  of  being  answered,  grasps 
at  any  object  not  to  be  had  in  the  whole  empire 
of  actual  or  possible,  the  fact  has  not  yet  been  dis- 
covered. The  supply  may  not  be  within  easy 
reach  of  the  need ;  a  great  gulf  even  may  part  the 
two ;  but,  given  the  existence  of  the  one,  nature 
makes  oath  to  the  existence,  actual  or  obtainable, 
of  the  other. 

According  to  this,  the  need  of  God  on  the  part 
of  entire  nature  proclaims  a  God  somewhere  to 
match  the  need.  And  so  the  need  oi faith  in  God 
on  the  part  of  mankind  proclaims  at  least  the  ex- 
istence of  reasonable  natural  means  for  securinof 
faith;  that  is,  good  evidence  of  his  actual  exist- 
ence— not  here  nor  there,  perhaps,  but  somewhere. 

To  this  add  what  I  will  call  a  consensus  of 
those  sciences  that  deal  with  the  structure  and 
functions  of  plants,  animals,  and  worlds.  As- 
tronomy, even  atheistic  astronomy,  concedes  a 
beginning  of  the  worlds  as  such.  Geology  con- 
cedes a  beginning  of  the  races  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals on  our  planet.  And  all  the  sciences  that 
deal  with  organic  being,  whether  living  or  fossil, 


40  UNIVERSAL    BELIEFS. 

present  us  a  scene  of  which  some  crowded  Patent 
Office  gives  only  a  faint  suggestion  — show  us 
countless  numbers  and  varieties  of  inventions, 
contrivances,  machines  (so  we  would  call  them  if 
they  were  the  work  of  man),  far  superior  in  ex- 
quisiteness  of  adaptation  to  certain  ends,  and  in 
the  beauty  and  wonderfulness  of  the  results 
achieved,  to  anything  made  by  human  ingenuity. 
Indeed,  man  himself  is  one  of  these  natural  or- 
ganic marvels— man,  who,  from  the  necessity  of 
the  case,  must  be  vastly  superior  to  his  own  work. 
Now,  outside  of  the  realm  of  natural  organ- 
isms, all  the  examples  of  organization  that  we  see, 
from  the  hexagonal  cells  of  the  bee  to  the  glories 
of  the  proudest  palace  or  cathedral,  v/e  unhesita- 
tingly and  unanimously  ascribe  to  electing  and 
shaping  intelligence ;  and  the  more  elaborate  the 
structure  and  the  more  perfect  the  adaptation  and 
conspiracy  of  the  parts  to  their  end,  the  higher  and 
grander  seems  the  intelligence  it  bespeaks  in  the 
maker.  We  do  not  need  to  see  the  maker  in  the 
process  of  making  before  our  minds  are  made  up. 
It  is  enough  that  in  all  cases  in  which  the  origin 
of  such  things  has  been  noticed  (and  these  cases 
are  innumerable)  they  have  come  from  a  choosing 
and  contriving  workman.  When,  then,  in  course 
of  a  long  advance  from  the  humblest  to  the  high- 
est among  organisms  other  than  plants  and  ani- 


supreme:  deity.  41 

nials  and  worlds,  during  which  we  have  found  not 
a  single  one  among  all  their  hosts  not  referable  to 
intelligent  authorship,  we  come  to  organisms  of 
still  higher  grade  which  we  know  men  did  not 
make,  shall  we  come  to  a  full  stop,  reverse  our 
logic  completely,  and  proceed  to  doubt  or  deny 
intelligent  authorship  as  universally  as  we  have 
been  affirming  it?  What  right  have  we,  who 
have  just  pronounced  a  cathedral  on  which  wc 
have  chanced,  and  in  regard  to  which  we  as  yet 
know  nothing  but  what  w^e  see,  to  have  been 
made  by  intelligent  workmen — I  say,  what  right 
have  we  just  at  this  point  to  face  right  about, 
throw  away  our  old  principles  of  judgment,  and 
from  like  premises  draw  unlike  conclusions  as  we 
inquire  for  the  origin  of  that  greater  cathedral — 
man  who  made  the  cathedral?  Bacon  did  not 
advise  such  a  method  of  philosophizing.  Science 
commands  the  contrary  with  the  gesture  and  voice 
of  a  dictator.  The  voice  is  as  one,  but  it  is  really 
a  chorus  and  a  great  one.  It  comes  from  all  points 
of  the  compass,  from  the  depth  as  well  as  from  the 
height.  Nearly  all  the  sciences  that  speak  so 
grandly  in  our  time  join  in  it,  and  say  that  such 
an  immensity  of  infinitely  varied  and  exquisite 
organizations  which  are  surely  known  to  have 
been  begun,  and  which,  while  so  varied,  have 
such  broad  2ones  of  unity  connecting  them  with 


42  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

one  another,  must  have  had  one  practically  infi- 
nite personal  J\laker.  An  unsophisticated  person 
opening  intelligent  and  astonished  eyes  on  even 
the  single  microcosm  of  the  human  body,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  human  soul,  does  not  feel  it  hard 
to  say  with  Paul,  "For  the  invisible  things  of 
Him  from  the  creation  of  the  world  are  clearly 
seen,  being  understood  from  the  things  that  are 
made,  even  his  eternal  power  and  godhead,  so 
that  they  are  without  excuse." 

But  the  concord  of  sciences  is  still  broader. 
Nature,  especially  as  interpreted  by  the  natural 
sciences,  shows  us  many  points  of  positive  har- 
mony with  the  Bible  doctrine  of  an  infinite  per- 
sonal Maker  of  nature.  In  its  vastness  of  extent; 
in  its  prodigious  dynamics;  in  its  mingled  love 
and  wrath,  smiles  and  frowns;  in  its  mysterious- 
ness  and  unfathomableness;  in  its  relations  to  law 
and  time  and  motion,  as  suggesting  a  Power  equal- 
ly at  home  in  the  small  and  great,  in  the  slow  and 
swift,  in  the  momentary  and  the  everlasting;  as 
well  as  in  the  multitude  and  variety  and  exquis- 
iteness  of  its  adaptation  of  means  to  ends,  nature 
is  just  what  we  should  expect  from  the  hands  of 
such  a  Maker  as  the  Bible  affirms.  On  the  other 
hand,  to  offset  these  harmonies,  science  has  not 
yet  brought  to  light  any  provable  discord.  There 
are  mysteries  in  nature;  but  mystery,  instead  of 


SUPREME    DEITY.  43 

being  a  discord,  is  one  of  nature's  harmonies  with 
Biblical  Theism.  If  nature  were  not  mysterious 
it  would  not  be  like  the  God  of  the  Bible.  Hugh 
Miller,  speaking  with  geological  lips,  says  that 
the  God  of  the  Old  Testament  is  the  God  of  na- 
ture :  nature  is  not  a  gospel,  but  it  nowhere  for- 
bids a  gospel  supplement. 

Add  to  this  a  consensus  of  philosophic  tests. 
If,  among  several  hypotheses  to  account  for  a  fact, 
one  is  found  which,  while  amply  sufficient  and  a 
priori  as  credible  as  any,  is  vastly  the  simplest,  the 
surest,  the  safest,  the  sublimest,  the  most  salutary, 
and  the  most  in  accord  with  the  convictions  and 
traditions  of  mankind,  it  would  be  accepted  with- 
out hesitation  by  all  reasonable  people.  Now  such 
is  the  Theistic  hypothesis  to  account  for  nature. 
An  infinite  personal  Power  is  at  least  as  credible 
as  an  infinite  impersonal  one — the  only  one  now 
put  forth  to  compete  with  Jehovah  for  the  honors 
of  Godhead.  That  an  infinite  Person  is  amply 
sufficient  to  account  for  all  natural  wonders  is  not 
open  to  question.  As  to  the  simplicity  as  well  as 
sureness  of  the  Theistic  hypothesis,  the  merest 
child  can  understand  it;  wdiile  its  only  rival,  the 
scheme  of  evolution,  is  so  complex  and  complica- 
ted as  to  task  the  brains  of  philosophers;  and  even 
they,  after  wading  through  whole  dreary  volumes 
of  muddy  explanation,   generally  conclude  with 


^4  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

saying  No  or  Perhaps^  instead  of  Amen.  As  to 
which  hypothesis  is  the  more  salutary  in  its  ten- 
dency on  society,  is  best  fitted  to  restrain  men  at 
large  from  evil  and  incite  them  to  good — that 
which  ascribes  nature  to  such  a  God  as  the  Scrip- 
tures teach,  or  that  which  makes  it  the  child  of 
a  blind  force  which,  however  great,  can  neither 
note  moral  differences  nor  reward  or  punish  ac- 
cording to  them — it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  there 
can  be  any  honest  difference  of  opinion;  nor  as 
to  whether  it  is  safer  for  a  man  to  conduct  life  on 
the  supposition  of  a  God  that  can  call  him  to  ac- 
count, or  on  the  supposition  of  no  God.  By  the 
one  course  he  risks  nothing;  by  the  other  he  risks 
everything.  We  have  seen  how  stand  the  convic- 
tions and  traditions  of  mankind,  especially  of  the 
more  intelligent  and  well-deported  masses. 

That  all  these  preeminences  can  be  affirmed 
with  supreme  confidence  of  the  Theistic  hypothe- 
sis could  hardly  be  plainer  than  it  is  to  every  toler- 
ably well-informed  person;  nor  could  it  be  surer 
than  it  is  that  in  matters  of  business,  or  even  sci- 
ence, any  hypothesis  to  account  for  a  fact  having 
such  advantages  over  all  others  would  be  unhesi- 
tatingly accepted  and  acted  on  by  all  sensible 
people.  It  ought  to  be.  Such  credentials  are 
imperative.  They  speak  like  a  king  to  many 
parts  of  human  nature,  but  especially  to  reason 


SUPREME   DEITY.  45 

and  the  principle  of  self-preservation.  In  fact 
they  are  the  autograph  and  broad  seal  of  that  king 
whose  name  is  Truth,  and  in  the  case  before  us 
of  that  King  whose  name  is  God.  They  are  large 
enough  to  be  descried  and  recognized  from  the 
stars.  So  they  bind  the  conscience.  No  man 
can  justify  himself  to  science  and  philosophy, 
much  less  to  common  sense  and  common  pru- 
dence, in  refusing  an  hypothesis  which  he  sees  to 
be  vastly  simpler,  surer,  safer,  sublimer,  and  more 
salutary  than  any  other.  Doubtless  these  facts 
have  had  much  to  do  in  promoting  the  general 
Theism  of  mankind.  When  they  have  not  been 
distinctly  conceived  and  expressed  they  have  al- 
ways been  subtilly  present  in  the  air;  as  it  were, 
thin  ghosts  and  shadows  have  flitted  dimly  to 
and  fro,  looking  in  at  our  windows,  stealing  by 
our  side  with  the  faintest  suspicion  of  a  footfall, 
hovering  over  us  with  whispering  wings,  filtering 
a  liliputian  speech  through  the  coarser  voices  of 
the  world,  and  so  gradually  depositing  faith  in 
God  as  nature  does  the  dew,  with  no  rattle  and 
outcry  of  machinery,  but  all  silently  and  imper- 
ceptibly, even  as  the  worlds  above  us  steal  on 
their  magnificent  courses  through  the  heavens. 

"  Ere  the  radiant  sun 
Sprang  from  the  east,  or  'mid  the  vault  of  night 
The  moon  suspended  her  serener  lamp — 


46  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

Ere  mountains,  woods,  or  streams  adorned  the  globe 

Or  Wisdom  taught  the  sons  of  men  her  love. 

Then  lived  the  Almighty  One;  then,  deep-retired 

In  his  unfathomed  essence,  viewed  the  forms, 

The  forms  eternal,  of  created  things  : 

The  radiant  sun,  the  moon's  nocturnal  lamp. 

The  mountains,  woods,  and  streams,  the  rolling  globe, 

And  Wisdom's  mien  celestial. 

What  he  admired  and  loved  his  vital  smile 

Unfolded  into  being.     Hence  the  breath 

Of  life  informing  each  organic  frame ; 

Hence  the  green  earth  and  wild-resounding  waves ; 

Hence  light  and  shade  alternate,  warmth  and  cold, 

And  dear  autumnal  skies  and  vernal  showers 

And  all  the  fair  variety  of  things." 


.  EARTHLYPROVIDENCE 


Divosqne,  mortalesque  turmas 

Imperio  regit  unus  ^quo.  HORACE. 

One  governs  with  just  sway  both  gods  and  mortals. 


fivv  6'  elTTO/xat  {J.ev.     Ev  6eC)  ye  navrtkoQ.        PINDAR. 

At  present  I  am  hoping.    But  the  issue  is  in  the  hands  of 
God. 


And  He  is  governor  among  the  nations.  david. 


EARTHLY   PROVIDENCE.  49 


III.  EARTHLY  PROVIDENCE. 

We  can  imagine  the  supreme  Person  utterly 
indifferent  to  what  is  going  on  among  men  and 
taking  in  it  no  part  whatever.  A  few  philoso- 
phers, so  called,  like  Epicurus,  have  maintained 
that  this  imaginable  deity  is  actual.  Multitudes 
of  people  act  as  if  Epicurus  was  right.  Neverthe- 
less, it  is  the  theory  of  all  the  great  creeds  and 
sacred  books  of  the  world  and  of  the  great  masses 
in  all  nations  and  ages  that  the  Supreme  is  one 
who  is  more  or  less  conversant  with  the  affairs  of 
this  world,  interested  in  its  concerns,  and  actively 
employed  among  them.  This  is  the  reason  why 
men  always  and  everywhere  have  endeavored  to 
propitiate  him  in  many  ways.  They  have  feared 
divine  action  against  them,  hoped  for  divine  ac- 
tion in  their  favor;  so  have  set  themselves  to  avert, 
if  possible,  the  one  and  to  secure,  if  possible,  the 
other.  The  Jupiter  of  the  Romans  and  Zeus  of 
the  Greeks  was  a  being  supposed  to  play  a  large 
part  in  the  affairs  of  the  world.  So  of  the  Egyp- 
tian Osiris,  the  Persian  Ormuzd,  the  Phoenician 
and  Chaldsean  Baal,  the  Hindoo  Brahma,  the 
Scandinavian  Odin,  and  the  Great  Spirit  of  the 

T'niversiil  Bt'lle's.  A 


^3  UNIVERSAL   BEUEFS. 

American  Indians.     Oracles  were  given  by  tliem, 
messages  sent,  inspirations  breathed,  prayers  an- 
swered, incarnations  made,   things  common   and 
things  miraculous  done;  indeed,  most  natural  phe- 
nomena have  been  ascribed  to  the  supernatural. 
The  oral  and  written  traditions  of  all  the  chief 
nations  of  ancient  and  modern  times  are  full  of 
such  things.     In  fact,    the  belief  in   the  divine 
activity  in  human  affairs  has  generally  been  so 
strong  that  men  have  been  willing  to  put  them- 
selves  to  vast  inconvenience  and   expense,    and 
even   suffering,   in  order  to  secure  its  favorable 
action  in  their  affairs.     Self-inflicted  tortures,  hu- 
man sacrifices,  exposures  of  children,  as  well  as 
prayers  and  oaths  to  an    immense  extent,   have 
testified  to  the  sincerity  of  whole  nations  in  think- 
ing  that   deity  is   an   active   force   among  men. 
Some  have  thought  this  force  largely  unjust  and 
malign;  some  have  thought  it  at  times  hampered, 
deceivable,  defeated,  forgetful,  slumbering;  while, 
according  to  the  faith  of  Christendom,  it  is  the 
opposite  of  all  these — a  force  whose  activity  is 
constant,  universal,  benevolent,  all-wise,  and  all- 
mighty;  a  force  brought  to  bear  on  every  actual 
event  and  even  on  a  host  of  harmful  things  which 
but  for  it  would  have  become  actual  events.     But 
that  God  stands  wholly  aside  from  the  world  of 
men,  and  neither  cares  nor  does  among  them,  is  no 


EARTHLY   PROVIDENCE.  5I 

part  of  the  world's  faith  and  never  has  been,  so  far 
as  we  know.  On  the  contrary,  the  great  creeds, 
traditions,  and  catholic  beliefs  of  mankind  have 
always  invested  all  deities  with  an  activity  and 
weight  in  human  affairs  proportioned  to  the  power 
they  were  supposed  to  possess. 

Is  there  any  consensus  of  nature,  as  far  as 
known  to  us  by  observation,  experience,  and  the 
sciences,  to  negative  this  consensus  of  nations  and 
traditions  ?  For  example,  does  the  observed  reign 
of  law  oppose  it  ?  Why  should  it  be  supposed  to 
oppose  activity  in  God  any  more  than  it  does  ac- 
tivity in  man  ?  But  no  divine  agency  is  visible, 
and  to  some  this  present  invisibility  suggests  un- 
reality. But  are  there  not  many  forces  which  act 
powerfully  and  yet  act  unseen?  Even  personal 
agents  often  do  great  things  without  manifesting 
themselves. 

"  But  the  universe  as  now  known  to  us  is  so 
broad,  man  and  his  concerns  are  such  an  insignif- 
icant part  of  the  whole,  there  are  so  many  wor- 
thier fields  for  divine  action  than  this,  does  it  not 
look  as  if  Deity  must  overlook  us,  as  if  he  must 
scorn  us,  as  if  he  would  have  neither  ability  nor 
leisure  nor  motive  to  notice  us  and  take  a  note- 
worthy part  in  our  affairs?"  This  consideration 
might  have  weight  as  against  Jupiter,  but  not  as 
against  Jehovah.     An  infinite  Being  has  no  trou- 


52  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

ble  among  the  infinities,  whether  of  space  or  num- 
ber or  duration.  To  him  action  here  does  not 
mean  inaction  yonder.  He  is  not  obliged  to  neg- 
lect the  small  that  he  may  attend  to  the  large,  to 
leave  the  earth  without  government  that  he  may 
reiofu  in  Sirius  and  Alcvone.  Business  does  not 
crowd  him,  cares  do  not  worry  him,  details  do  not 
exhaust  his  time  and  patience;  maxima  on  the 
one  hand  and  minima  on  the  other  are  equally 
within  his  reach;  there  is  no  labor  in  either  his 
doing  or  knowing,  though  it  bear  on  every  point 
in  the  whole  astronomical  heavens.  To  speak  of 
things  as  too  great  or  too  small  or  too  many  or  too 
remote  for  such  a  Being  is  too  absurd.  Consider- 
ations of  distance  or  magnitude  or  number  or 
duration  have  no  meaning  as  related  to  either  the 
knowledge  or  the  power  of  such  a  Being. 

The  doctrine  of  divine  activity  among  men  is 
not  only  without  discouragement  from  nature,  but 
is  in  positive  harmony  with  all  that  we  know  of 
it.  Everything  about  us  is  constantly  active  on 
man  in  a  greater  or  less  degree.  Not  even  the 
stones  and  dust  of  the  highway  are  absolutely  pas- 
sive toward  us  for  a  moment.  They  are  always 
throbbing  on  us  with  their  gravities,  chemistries, 
and  latent  fires.  Not  a  star  seen  in  our  telescopes 
so  distant  that  it  does  not  affect  us  by  its  light,  its 
attraction,  its  beauty,  and  its  manifold  suggestions. 


EARTHLY   PROVIDENCE.  53 

The  natural  sciences,  taken  together,  show  us  a 
universe  of  impersonal  things,  many  of  which 
are  wonderfully  potent,  and  all  of  which  are  in- 
cessantly active  in  their  several  spheres— spheres 
that  mutually  touch  and  interlock  and  have  all 
vibrations  in  common,  like  the  fancied  heavens 
of  Ptolemy.  Ascending  to  personal  beings, 
these  too,  as  far  as  our  observation  has  gone,  are 
ever-active  powers,  each  within  its  sphere  intelli- 
gently and  consciously  and  constantly  bringing 
itself  to  bear  on  its  environment,  which  immedi- 
ate environment  transmits  the  impulses  it  receives 
to  a  still  wider  horizon,  and  so  on  to  the  end,  at 
least  of  this  world;  each  doing  this  to  an  extent 
proportioned  to  its  resources  and  opportunities. 
Some  persons  of  great  natures  are  magnificent  in 
the  extent  to  which  they  impress  themselves  on 
the  world.  Rivers  of  influence,  broader  and 
longer  than  the  Amazon,  flow  away  from  their 
lofty  summits.  What  they  are  hourly  doing  goes 
to  shape  nations  and  ages— it  may  be  all  the  na- 
tions to  come.  They  may  be,  and  often  are,  very 
harmful  things— devouring  conflagrations,  far- 
sweeping  pestilences,  terrible  storms  that  shake 
whole  oceans  and  strew  distant  shores  with 
wrecks.  But  forces  they  are,  ever-active  forces, 
acting  through  immense  spheres,  acting  away  to 
remote  horizons,  and  even  the  limits  of  the  globe, 


24  rXIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

Avitli  an  energy  proportioned  to  the  greatness  of 
their  natures  and  opportunities. 

Thus,  through  the  whole  vast  range  of  being 
as  far  as  known  to  our  secular  observation  and 
science,  from  a  stone  on  the  highway  to  some  high 
Mightiness  on  his  throne,  all  things  are  found  in- 
cessantly active  on  man,  and  active  according  to 
the  riches  of  their  endowment.  Of  course  the 
strong  presumption  is  that,  on  ascending  still  far- 
ther to  the  Supreme  Person,  we  do  not  come  to  a 
startling  exception  to  the  enormous  and  hitherto 
unvarying  rule,  but  rather  to  One  whose  in- 
cessant activity  among  us  is  as  supreme  among 
personal  activities  as  is  His  nature  among  person- 
al natures. 

Geology  shows  that  all  organic  beings  on  the 
earth  had  a  beginning.  Of  this  beginning  God  is 
the  sufficient  and  simplest  and  therefore  the  most 
scientific  explanation.  So  he  is  the  Maker  and 
Father  of  men.  But  it  is  contrary  to  the  nature 
and  duty  of  a  father  not  to  care  and  do  for  his  own 
children,  of  a  maker  not  to  care  and  do  for  the 
work  of  his  own  hands,  so  far  as  they  may  have 
need;  and  that  men  do  need  a  heavenly  caring 
and  doing  for  them  every  day  is  terribly  plain. 
From  what  we  know  of  ourselves  we  are  sure  that 
God  could  not  content  Himself  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  a  vast  thesaurus  of  unemployed  faculties, 


EARTHLY   PROVIDENCE.  55 

especially  in  the  presence  of  vast  opportunities 
and  vast  need  for  their  exercise,  a  need,  too,  of 
His  own  creatures  and  children.  If  we  were 
worth  making  we  are  worth  preserving — guiding 
and  governing  for  the  sake  of  preserving. 

In  brief:  the  Bible,  as  understood  by  all  Jew- 
ish and  Christian  denominations,  teaches  a  Su- 
preme Person  who  is  alive  to  what  is  passing  in 
this  world,  deeply  interested  in  its  affairs,  and  per- 
sonally and  continually  active  in  shaping  events 
among  us  to  a  vast  extent.  This  teaching  agrees 
with  that  of  all  the  other  great  creeds,  traditions, 
and  catholic  beliefs  of  the  world,  since  these  as- 
cribe to  all  their  deities,  greater  and  lesser,  an  ac- 
tivity and  weight  in  human  affairs  proportioned 
to  the  greatness  of  the  faculties  they  are  supposed 
to  possess.  To  this  consensus  of  creeds  and  na- 
tions and  ages  must  be  added  another  which  these 
"scientific"  times  are  bound  to  make  much  of — 
that  of  testimonies  from  all  the  sciences,  as  well 
as  from  countless  popular  observations  and  experi- 
ences, to  the  effect  that  all  other  beings  known  to 
us,  from  the  humblest  to  the  highest,  from  miner- 
als to  men,  are  not  only  forces  and  ever-active 
forces,  but  forces  ever  active  on  men  and  their  be- 
longings in  proportion  to  the  powers  they  possess, 
and  that  consequently  we  are  warranted  in  pre- 
suming that  the  highest  Being  of  all  is  no  excep- 


^6  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

tion  to  the  otherwise  universal  rule,  but  acts  in 
the  afFairs  of  the  world  to  an  extent  as  much 
crrander  than  that  belonging  to  any  other  agent 
as  his  powers  are  greater  than  theirs. 

This  means,  for  such  a  God  as  the  Bible  shows, 
a  universal  providence.  Not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the 
ground  without  him;  not  a  hair  of  our  heads  fails 
to  be  numbered.  Every  single  thing  that  occurs 
in  the  world  occurs  under  his  active  supervision. 
So  it  has  been  in  all  past  time;  so  it  will  be  in 
all  time  to  come;  nothing  ever  transpires  in  which 
his  great  hand  is  not  busy;  not  an  event,  how^- 
ever  small,  but  could  say  with  the  Hebrew  Psalm- 
ist, ' '  Thou  compassest  my  path ; . . .  thou  hast  beset 
me  behind  and  before  and  laid  thine  hand  upon 
me."  Such  power  as  his  can  do  much  for  every 
conceivable  event;  such  wisdom  as  his  knows 
just  what  should  be  done  and  how  to  do  it;  such 
goodness  as  his  disposes  him  to  do  in  all  things 
the  best  he  can;  such  a  nature  as  his  can  put  forth 
an  incessant  and  boundless  activity  without  an 
atom  of  weariness  or  worry.  An  absolutely  uni- 
versal providence  would  cost  such  a  being  noth- 
ing, but  would  be  an  unspeakable  advantage  to 
the  world.  So  he  is  bound  to  give  it.  So  he 
actually  gives  it. 

Many  facts  harmonize  with  this  doctrine,  and 
none  can  be  shown  inconsistent  with  it.     Not  a 


EARTHLY   PROVIDENCE.  57 

few  are  of  such  a  character  that  divine  power 
must  have  directly  produced  them,  and  so  must 
have  determined  their  times,  places,  shapes,  de- 
o-rees,  and  other  circumstances.  Many  other  facts 
are  so  plainly  useful  and  admirable,  so  like  what 
we  would  naturally  expect  from  a  good  being  and 
wise,  that  they  plainly  accord  with  the  idea  that 
God  is  active  in  promoting  them,  if  not  in  actually 
producing  them.  As  to  the  remainder,  viz.,  those 
facts  that  apparently  are  not  desirable,  but  the 
contrary — such  as  temptations,  sins,  errors,  suffer- 
ings— it  can  be  shown  that  they  are  not  incon- 
sistent with  the  doctrine  of  a  divine  activity  in 
connection  with  them,  though  some  of  them  may 
be  inconsistent  with  a  divine  activity  in  producing 
them. 

Among  the  things  in  which  God  must  have 
been  active,  because  they  must  have  been  directly 
produced  by  him,  are  the  following :  worlds; 
plants  and  animals  as  organisms;  vegetable  and 
animal  life ;  terms  of  growth,  stature,  and  life ; 
human  souls ;  a  multitude  of  historic  miracles 
scattered  through  the  centuries — miracles  the  de- 
nying of  which  unsettles  all  history.  That  the 
origin  of  such  things  must  be  traced  directly  to 
divine  choice  and  power  is  conceded  by  all  those 
amonof  us  who  concede  a  divine  Person.  And  if 
God  originated  habitable  globes  and  organic  spe- 


^8  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

cies  and  mysterious  life  and  still  more  mysterious 
spirit,  as  well  as  the  many  signs  and  wonders  and 
answers  to  prayer  which  secondary  causes  cannot 
explain,  he  must  have  regulated  many  particulars 
as  to  each  of  these  things.  For  example,  in  pro- 
ducing a  soul  he  determines  luJien  it  shall  appear, 
wJiere  it  shall  appear,  what  shall  be  its  general 
calibre,  what  proportion  to  one  another  its  various 
faculties  shall  have,  w^hat  its  environment  shall 
be.  In  short,  every  such  fact  is  extensively  ma- 
nipulated and  governed.  It  enters  the  realm  of 
being  at  this  angle  or  at  that  as  God  chooses.  It 
appears  in  the  first  century  or  in  the  nineteenth, 
in  Europe  or  in  America,  in  a  palace  or  in  a  cot- 
tage, as  seems  to  him  good.  Whether  it  is  large 
or  small,  whether  dowered  as  a  poet  or  as  a  phi- 
losopher, depends  on  the  purpose  for  which  he 
wants  it.  It  is  sphered  about  by  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, and  by  a  great  many  other  com- 
mandments not  so  easily  neglected. 

But  there  is  another  large  class  of  facts,  viz., 
those  of  so  pleasant  and  useful  a  character  that 
one  can  readily  believe  them  protected  and  pro- 
moted, if  not  produced,  by  divine  agency.  Such 
are  the  family,  civil  government,  literature  and 
science  and  art,  virtues,  victories  of  truth  and 
right,  richly  deserved  calamities,  the  reign  of 
law.     Were  God  to  defend  and  further,  or  even 


EARTHLY   PROVIDENCE.  59 

originate,  sucli  things  with  all  the  forces  of  his 
wisdom  and  power,  he  could  not  be  thought  to 
do  anything  inconsistent  with  the  account  given 
of  him  in  the  Bible,  but,  on  the  contrary,  his 
action  would  be  considered  in  loving  and  musical 
agreement  with  the  same.  The  two  notes  chord 
perfectly.  Such  things  are  what  we  should  sup- 
pose would  come  forth  from  Deity  like  outbreak- 
ing waters.  They  are  just  the  children  to  come 
from  such  a  parent,  just  the  music  to  sound  from 
such  lips,  just  the  rays  to  shoot  from  such  a  sun. 
Not  discord  but  concord,  not  war  but  alliance, 
not  a  pulling  apart  but  a  pulling  together,  are 
the  ideas  suggested  when  we  look  at  the  doctrine 
of  a  universal  divine  providence  in  connection 
with  such  facts.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  certain 
other  things,  such  useful  things  as  water  and  air 
and  light,  as  grass  and  flowers  and  fruits  and  grains 
and  forests,  as  many  domestic  animals  and  birds  of 
wondrous  beauty  and  song,  as  happiness  and  vir- 
tue and  truth  and  the  great  ethnic  institutions 
which  guard  and  foster  these;  the  brilliant  victo- 
ries won  in  the  name  of  science  and  humanity  and 
God — all  of  which  began,  and  so  are  events — all 
such  bright  and  fair  things  face  towards  our  doc- 
trine, advance  to  meet  it,  take  it  cordially  by  the 
hand  and  say.  Welcome  ! 

There  remains  another   class  of  facts,    those 


6o  UNIVERSAL   BEUEFS. 

unpleasant  and  even  pernicious  ones  wliicli  perplex 
and  stumble  so  many —temptations,  sins,  errors,  suf- 
ferino-s.     Are  these  inconsistent  with  the  doctrine 
of  a  divine  providence  that  is  active  in  whatever 
occurs?     To  show  that  they  are  so  it  would  be 
necessary  to  show  that  such  natures  as  men  have 
(that  is,  natures  capable  of  freely  choosing  or  re- 
fusing the  right,  and  so  capable  of  virtue,  and  so 
capable  of  vice)  are  not  indispensable  to  the  best 
system.     To   many  they  seem    the  noblest  con- 
ceivable natures.     Beyond  a  doubt  virtue  is  the 
grandest   and   fairest   thing   that   ever  shone  on 
human  or  divine  thought:   in    comparison  with 
it  all  material  or  even  intellectual  magnificence 
and  beauty  are  unworthy  of  notice.     To  dispense 
with  such  a  free  nature  as  man's  is  to  dispense 
wuth  the  possibility  of  this  incomparable  jewel, 
to  dispense  with  all  the  glorious  actual  examples 
of  virtue  which  have  illumined  or  will  illumine 
the  earth.     The  Bible  being  witness,  the  scattered 
stars  of  such  examples  now  visible  will  gradually 
multiply  till  at  last  they  run  together  in  one  gen- 
eral blaze  of  glory.     Would  it  be  well  to  give  up 
the    possibility   of    such   a   luminous    hereafter? 
Who  is  Samson  Agonistes  enough  to  prove  the 
affirmative?     Such  a  feat  in  dialectics  seems  im- 
possible.     It  certainly  has  never  yet   been  per- 
formed. 


EARTHLY   PROVIDENCE.  6l 

Now  such  a  moral  nature  is,  by  its  very  con- 
stitution, open  to  tevtpiatioiis.  It  can  be  solicited 
from  all  quarters.  There  is  no  compulsion  to 
either  this  or  that.  Election,  as  between  the  good 
and  bad,  is  perfectly  free.  Mettlesome  steeds  are 
under  our  rein,  but  we  can  turn  them  in  any  di- 
rection we  please — into  the  desert  or  into  paradise, 
into  vice  or  into  virtue.  There  are  drawings  in 
both  directions,  and  must  be.  But  drawings 
towards  the  evil  can  be  successfully  resisted. 
Successful  resistance  will  build  up  a  character 
into  robust  goodness  as  nothing  else  can.  A 
habit  of  success  will  be  formed  which  in  time 
will  become  invincible.  To  secure  this  invincible 
habit,  w^e  will  suppose,  benevolent  Deity  brings 
himself  to  bear  on  every  temptation  which  he 
cannot  wisely  prevent,  to  abate  it,  to  shape  it,  to 
make  all  the  circumstances  of  time  and  place  and 
manner  and  motive  as  favorable  as  possible  for 
rejecting  it.  Not  a  case  on  which  he  does  not 
expend  omniscience  and  omnipotence  to  make  it 
harmless  and  even  serviceable.  His  sword  turns 
every  way  for  this  purpose.  On  each  battlefield 
all  his  forces  are  massed,  and  every  temptation  is 
a  battlefield.  He  would  fain  turn  every  tempta- 
tion into  a  heavenly  chariot  for  moral  and  reli- 
gious progress. 

But  temptations  too  often  issue  in  sin.     Are 


62  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

sins  inconsistent  with  a  divine  providence  being 
in  them?  Suppose  this  providence,  instead  of 
producing  or  promoting  the  sin  in  any  way,  acts 
wholly  against  it— to  prevent  it,  to  lessen  it,  to 
defeat  its  natural  issues— persuading,  command- 
ing, marshalling  natural  forces  and  laws,  apply- 
ing directly  that  divine  force  that  made  natural 
forces  and  laws,  doing  the  whole  with  a  whole- 
heartedness  that  uses  every  available  resource  in 
heaven's  treasury  against  the  evil.  Is  such  action 
as  this  inconsistent  with  the  goodness  or  justice 
of  God  ?  Our  claim  is  not  that  God  is  the  author 
of  sin  or  acts  in  its  favor,  which  would  be  blas- 
phemy; only  that  he  acts  in  regard  to  it.  If  the 
action  is  wholly  adverse  ;  if  he  hates  the  sin, 
strives  against  it,  does  all  he  can  consistently  to 
cancel  it  or  minimize  its  effects,  then  he  does  just 
what  the  Scriptures  say  he  does,  and  there  is  noth- 
ing stumbling  in  the  doing. 

But  errors  occur  as  w^ell  as  sins.  Both  are  bad 
things — poisons,  serpents,  wild  beasts — and  one 
could  wish  that  both  had  never  come.  But  here 
they  are  despite  our  wishes,  frightful  and  fruitful 
monsters,  plainly  come  to  stay.  What  shall  we 
say  of  that  ugly  twin  sister  of  sin  called  error,  es- 
pecially religious  error?  That  it  is  so  ugly  that  God 
could  not  have  anything  to  do  with  it?  Nay,  but 
that  he  could  \\o\.  favor  it  either  in  action  or  feel- 


EARTH I.Y  PROVIDENCE.  63 

ing.  He  surely  may  disfavor  it,  eliminate  it  as 
far  as  possible,  abate  its  evil  effects;  and  to  this 
end  may  persuade,  command,  illuminate,  hedge 
up  some  ways  and  open  others,  bring  to  bear  nat- 
ural forces  and  supernatural.  Some  errors  seem 
inseparable  from  finite  minds.  Others  seem  in- 
separable from  sinfulness.  If  God  prevents  all 
the  mistakes  that  he  wisely  can,  and  narrows  as 
much  as  he  can  all  that  he  cannot  consistently 
prevent,  and  does  all  he  can  to  cancel  their  evil 
efiects,  why,  this  is  the  very  thing  we  would  ex- 
pect a  good  God  to  do.  The  occurrence  of  errors 
is  no  proof  that  God  is  not  active  in  regard  to 
them;  it  is  only  proof  that,  whatever  his  activity 
against  them  may  be,  it  is  limited  by  the  nature 
of  things  or  by  considerations  of  wisdom. 

And  what  about  the  sitjferings  which  so  abound 
in  the  world  and  which  stumble  so  many — as  if  a 
good  God  could  not  for  a  moment  have  anything 
to  do  with  such  disagreeable  things !  But  some 
sufferings  seem  suitably  connected  with  sin  as 
cautions,  chastisements,  punishments.  Others 
may  serve  a  useful  purpose  to  sinners  as  a  means 
of  moral  discipline.  So  a  considerable  part  of  the 
sufferings  of  the  world  are  only  blessings  dressed 
in  black,  and  a  benevolent  being  could  consist- 
ently promote  or  even  produce  them.  How  does 
any  one  know  that  there  are  any  other  sufferings 


64  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

than  these  ?  Can  \\^  prove  that  there  are  ?  If  God 
dislikes  suffering  in  itself  and  prevents  as  much 
of  it  as  he  wisely  can,  "  never  willingly  grieving 
nor  afflicting  the  children  of  men;"  if  his  eye  is 
ever  on  the  alert  to  see  and  his  hand  ever  on  the 
alert  to  use  all  wise  opportunities  of  warning  ofp 
from  the  coast  of  being  all  temptations,  sins,  er- 
rors, and  sufferings,  then  this  is  just  what  we 
should  expect  from  a  good  God,  and  includes 
just  what  our  doctrine  of  a  universal  providence 
affirms  of  him.  For  it  affirms  not  that  he  acts/i?;^ 
every  event,  but  that  he  acts  in  regard  to  it.  It 
may  be  for  and  it  may  be  against.  In  the  case  of 
temptations,  sins,  and  errors  it  is  but  fair  to  think 
that  it  is  always  against.  God  is  always  crowding 
such  things  to  the  w^all.  Very  much  the  same  of 
suffering.  He  uses  it  freely  on  occasion;  he  pro- 
duces it,  if  need  be,  but  he  regards  the  necessity 
as  a  thing  to  be  deplored.  So  he  lays  himself  out 
to  have  just  as  little  sorrow  in  the  w^orld  as  possi- 
ble. He  hunts  it  down  w^ith  unsparing  and  un- 
ending vigilance.  But  it  is  not  possible  to  dis- 
pense with  it  altogether.  The  natural  connection 
between  sin  and  suffering  cannot  and  should  not 
be  severed.  There  must  be  chastisements  and 
remorses  and  punishments  for  offenders.  Moral 
discipline  must  be  looked  after,  and  drossy  char- 
acter must  pass  through  the  fires. 


EARTHLY   PROVIDENCE.  65 

We  find  that  the  allotments  of  men  in  this 
world  are  not  always  according  to  character. 
^' There  be  just  men  to  whom  it  happeneth  ac- 
cording to  the  work  of  the  wicked,  and  again 
there  be  wicked  men  to  whom  it  happeneth  ac- 
cording to  the  work  of  the  righteous."  The  good 
often  become  poor  and  the  bad  rich.  The  un- 
worthy often  rise  to  great  honors  and  the  worthy 
sink  to  great  dishonors.  Righteous  men  often  die 
in  their  prime  and  the  wicked  grow  old  in  their 
wickedness.  The  best  causes  sometimes  get  de- 
feated and  the  worst  triumph.  Among  States,  as 
well  as  among  individuals,  "the  race  is  not  al- 
ways to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong, 
neither  yet  bread  to  the  wise,  nor  yet  riches  to 
men  of  understanding,  nor  yet  favor  to  men  of 
skill,  but  time  and  chance  happen  to  them  all." 
Can  this  be  and  yet  the  providence  of  God  extend 
to  every  event  ? 

Suppose  that  the  present  life  is  probation- 
ary ;  that  God's  object  here  is  not  to  treat  men 
according  to  their  deserts,  but  according  to  the 
way  best  fitted  to  form  a  good  character;  that 
apparent  prosperity  or  adversity  is  not  always 
real  for  either  an  individual,  a  cause,  or  a  com- 
munity— grant  a  few  such  things  (and  why  not  ?), 
and  the  facts  just  cited  cease  to  be  objections  to 
our  doctrine.    God  has  not  prevented  certain  facts 


Univergxl  Belio's. 


66  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

which  you  regard  as  infelicities  or  as  injustices. 
Are  you  sure  that  your  views  of  things  are  cor- 
rect ?  Are  you  sure  that  good  men  or  good  causes 
are  not  sometimes  benefited  by  head-winds  and 
stormy  times  and  wrestlings  and  delays  ?  Are  you 
sure  that  it  is  always  best  that  sentence  against  an 
evil  work  should  be  executed  speedily;  that  none 
for  a  time  should  be  treated  better  than  they  de- 
serve; that  adversity  never  keeps  the  best  school 
for  the  best  men?  Are  we  sure  that  outward 
prosperity  is  not  often  as  much  a  mother  of  sun- 
strokes as  is  a  sultry  summer  day — outward  ad- 
versity not  as  much  a  mother  of  fruitful  showers 
as  is  yonder  angry-looking  cloud  or  as  yonder 
biting  Arctic  that  ventilates  the  world  ?  We  are 
not  sure.  We  have  not  a  modest  probability  even. 
On  the  contrary,  everything  looks  in  the  opposite 
direction,  in  the  direction  of  thinking  that  divine 
power  and  wisdom  are  active  in  every  one  of  these 
seemingly  unequal  allotments  of  worldly  advan- 
tage, directly  producing  and  promoting  some  of 
them,  and  so  manipulating  others  in  themselves 
undesirable,  but  which  cannot  be  wisely  prevent- 
ed by  Deity,  as  to  minimize  their  evil  issues. 
For  to  say  that  the  power  of  God  is  busy  in  any 
event  is  not  the  same  thing  as  saying  that  he  ap- 
proves of  it  or  promotes  it.  It  may  be  that  he 
fights  against  it,  restrains  it,  pares  it  down,  over- 


EARTHLY   PROVIDENCE.  67 

rules  it,  fends  off  or  limits  its  evil  consequences, 
"rides  and  rules  the  storm"  which  he  did  not 
evoke,  encompasses  the  mischief  as  a  brisk,  sun- 
ny, healthful  atmosphere  does  the  carrion  which 
it  is  busily  engaged  in  carrying  away  and  redis- 
tributing in  healthful  combinations. 

We  see,  then,  in  what  sense  the  lives  of  all 
men  may  be  said  to  be  ordered  by  God.  If  each 
event,  however  small,  powerfully  feels  the  regu- 
lating pressure  of  a  divine  Hand,  it  follows  that 
each  life  in  all  its  details  powerfully  feels  that 
pressure  and  is  a  very  different  thing  from  what 
it  would  have  been  without  a  divine  providence. 
This  is  what  is  meant  when  w^e  say  that  every 
man's  life  is  divinely  ordered.  We  do  not  mean 
that  God  decrees  and  is  responsible  for  all  our 
temptations  and  sins  and  ignorances  and  mistakes 
and  resulting  misfortunes,  that  he  produces  or 
promotes  or  favors  them  in  any  way;  but  simply 
that  the  divine  power  and  wisdom  are  dealing 
wath  each  life  at  every  point  in  order  to  help  it  as 
much  as  he  can  consistently  with  the  general 
good.  The  bush  is  aflame  with  a  speaking  divin- 
ity for  this  purpose  and  for  no  other.  Each  life 
represents  the  best  that  God  can  do  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. 

This  is  the  sense  in  which  every  man's  life  is 
ordered  bv   God.     But   the  ordering  of  a   good 


68  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

man's  life  is  a  very  different  thing  from  the  order- 
ing of  another  man's,  as  one  wonld  naturally  in- 
fer from  such  passages  as  these:  "  The  steps  of  a 
good  man  are  ordered  by  the  Lord."  "In  all 
thy  ways  acknowledge  Him  and  he  shall  direct 
thy  paths."  In  the  case  of  a  loyal  subject  and 
friend,  God  can  properly  do  far  more  for  his 
advantage  than  he  could  do  were  the  man  dis- 
loyal;  he  can  reconcile  with  the  general  good  a 
far  greater  amount  of  good  to  the  individual,  just 
as  all  human  governments  can.  There  is  little 
that  such  orovernments  can  do  for  law-breakers 
and  rebels,  and  yet  conserve  the  public  weal.  But 
in  proportion  as  the  subject  is  loyal  and  law-abi- 
ding it  becomes  possible,  in  consistency  with  the 
general  good,  for  the  government  to  shine  out 
upon  him  with  full-orbed  favor.  So  the  divine 
government  can  be,  and  is,  specially  favorable  to 
the  interests  of  its  loyal  subject  and  friend;  not 
perhaps  to  what  you  and  I  may  chance  in  our 
short-sightedness  to  think  his  interests,  but  to  his 
real  interests,  namely,  his  character  and  happi- 
ness in  the  long  run.  For  such  interests  the  di- 
vine Ruler  can  make  ''all  things  work  together 
for  good. ' ' 

An  easy  inference  is  that  it  is  greatly  worth 
our  while  to  be  the  loyal  subjects  and  friends  of 
God.      If  we  knew  a  man  of  such  commandinsr 


EARTHLY   PROVIDENCE.  69 

influence  that  lie  could  help  or  hinder  our  lives  at 
all  points,  so  that  any  plan  of  ours  stood  not  the 
least  chance  of  success  without  his  consent  and 
every  chance  of  success  with  it,  we  should  think 
it  little  short  of  madness  to  treat  him  with  inso- 
lence or  neglect.  No  sensible  person  would  do 
such  a  thing.  He  would,  on  the  contrary,  make 
all  possible  efforts  to  be  on  the  best  of  terms  with 
one  on  whom  his  interests  so  thoroughly  depend- 
ed, especially  if  he  knew  that  the  possessor  of  such 
power  over  his  interests  was  disposed  to  use  it. 
He  would  carefully  avoid  giving  him  any  ground 
of  offence.  He  would  try  to  fulfil  his  wishes  in 
every  particular.  To  this  end  he  would  put  him- 
self to  large  inconvenience  and  even  great  sac- 
rifices. 

Now  God,  it  seems,  is  such  a  being  infinitely 
magnified.  There  is  not  a  jot  of  our  welfare 
which  is  not  completely  in  his  hand,  not  a  tittle 
of  our  lives  which  his  omniscience  and  omnipo- 
tence do  not  grasp.  We  can  get  nothing  when 
he  says,  No;  we  can  get  everything  when  he  says. 
Yes.  "Except  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they 
labor  in  vain  that  build  it;  except  the  Lord  keep 
the  city,  the  watchman  waketh  but  in  vain."  He 
knows  every  turn  of  our  affairs,  he  is  hard  by  at 
every  crisis;  crisis  or  no  crisis,  he  is  hard  by. 
There  is  no  pit  of  misfortune  from  which  his  hand 


JO  UNIVERSAL   BEUEFS. 

cannot  lift  us,  no  pinnacle  of  good  fortune  from 
which  his  hand  cannot  hurl  us.  And  it  is  not 
merely  a  question  of  what  he  caji  do.  The  power 
he  has  is  the  power  he  uses.  He  is  fashioning  our 
lot  at  every  point,  at  every  moment,  as  the  pot- 
ter fashions  the  clay  on  his  wheel.  Not  a  sand- 
grain  on  our  shore,  not  a  grass-blade  on  our  farm, 
not  a  leaf  in  our  forest,  not  a  word  or  even  letter 
in  our  book,  but  wears  his  harness  and  carries  his 
bit.  Yes,  it  must  be  a  great  thing  to  have  God 
for  a  friend.  It  is  wonderfully  worth  our  while 
to  be  his  loyal  subjects,  especially  if  to  be  loyal 
to  him  is  to  be  loyal  to  righteousness,  if  to  win 
and  keep  his  favor  we  will  not  be  obliged  to  stoop 
to  any  meanness  or  unreasonableness,  but  may 
keep  to  a  path  of  manly  uprightness  as  lofty  as 
the  stars.  Is  not  this  possible?  Inquire  and 
see.  It  is  written,  "  No  good  thing  will  he  with- 
hold from  him  that  walketh  uprightly." 


IV.   RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP. 


Uapu  TTuatv  avQpuTTOL^  jrpuTov  vo/ui^£Tac  Tovg  Oeoig  aejSetv. 

XENOPHON. 

It  is  believed  that  the  gods  have  been  worshipped  by  all 
men  from  the  first. 


'Le^elv  rti  Tuv  GeCJv  Kd7CALa-ov  oluat  y'  avTo  kql  cocpuTarov  OvrjTolaiv 
elvai.  EURIPIDES. 

To  worship  the  gods  I  think  to  be  the  fairest  and  wisest 
thins:  for  mortals. 


Oh,  come,  let  us  worship  and  bow  down;  let  us  kneel 
before  the  Lord  our  Maker.  david. 


RELIGIOUS   WORSHIP.  73 


IV.  RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP. 

All  denominations  of  Christians,  without  a 
dissenting  voice,  agree  that  worship  is  to  be  paid 
to  the  supreme  Person.  Acts  of  reverence  and 
homage,  such  as  prayer,  praise,  offerings  of  vari- 
ous kinds,  together  with  reverent  looks  and  tones 
and  postures,  are  withheld  from  God  in  no  section 
of  the  Christian  church.  On  the  contrary,  such 
things  are  everywhere  enjoined  as  indispensable 
duties  and  high  privileges.  All  the  great  Chris- 
tian voices  are  equally  positive  and  imperative. 
Forms  of  worship  vary;  some  wear  hats  before  the 
Lord,  while  others  think  it  more  reverent  not  to 
wear  them;  some  use  a  ritual,  while  others  de- 
cline it;  some  sit  in  prayer,  while  others  stand  or 
kneel;  some  praise  with  the  voice  only,  while 
others  add  the  music  of  artificial  instruments;  but 
not  a  murmur  of  dissent  as  to  the  propriety  and 
obligation  of  either  private  or  public  worship  can 
be  detected  by  the  sharpest  ear.  More  than  this: 
in  no  section  of  the  Christian  church  can  a  man 
who  wholly  neglects  worship  pass  current  as  a 
Christian  man.  If  he  has  no  sanctuary,  no  prayer- 
meeting,  no  family  altar,  no  grace  at  meals,  no 


j4  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

closet;  if  lie  never  adores  nor  supplicates  nor 
gives  thanks,  never  bows  the  head  nor  closes  the 
eye  nor  awes  the  voice  nor  bends  the  knee  before 
God,  his  character  in  the  community  is  settled. 
Whatever  else  he  may  be,  he  is  not  a  Christian. 
There  is  not  a  Christian  denomination  on  earth 
that  will  acknowledge  such  a  man  as  a  worthy 
member. 

A  like  agreement  is  found  among  all  the  re- 
ligions. The  Bible  says,  "Worship  before  Him, 
all  the  earth.  Oh,  come,  let  us  worship  and  bow 
down,  let  us  kneel  before  the  Lord  our  Maker. 
Bring  an  offering  and  come  into  his  courts.  I  will 
that  men  pray  everywhere.  Pray  without  ceasing. 
In  everything  give  thanks,  for  this  is  the  will  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus  concerning  you."  And  so 
on,  in  a  great  variety  of  modes,  from  Moses  to 
John. 

What  the  Bible  says  is  substantially  said  by 
all  the  ereat  sacred  books  and  creeds  now  found 
in  the  world.  The  Koran,  the  Avesta,  the  Vedas, 
the  Tripitaka,  the  pictured  monuments  of  Egypt 
and  Phoenicia  and  Assyria,  the  still  nobler  and 
more  lasting  monumental  histories  and  poems  in 
which  are  preserved  the  religious  creeds  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  all  cry  out.  Worship,  with  scarcely  less 
emphasis  than  the  Bible  itself.  They  all  appoint 
churches  or  synagogues  or  mosques  or  temples, 


RELIGIOUS   WORSHIP.  75 

all  decree  private  as  well  as  public  devotions, 
all  have  their  prescribed  rites  and  ceremonies  in 
honor  of  at  least  One  who  is  considered  the  Su- 
preme of  beings.  Whether  he  is  called  Jupiter 
or  Brahma  or  Buddha  or  Allah  or  something  else, 
certain  outward  acts  of  reverence  and  homage 
must  be  paid  to  him.  So  say  all  the  Gentile 
bibles  the  world  around.  They  echo  our  own 
Bible,  and  that  without  any  loss  of  sound.  Like 
our  own  Bible,  they  all  insist  on  worship  as  a  part 
of  the  alphabet  of  religion.  That  it  is  a  fitting 
and  necessary  thing  is  an  unquestioned  and  un- 
questionable axiom  with  them  all.  Where  is  the 
religion  that  does  not  even  look  with  surprise  and 
wTath  on  the  man  who  never  pays  any  tokens  of 
honor  to  his  God  ? 

To  say  that  all  religions  agree  in  calling  for 
w^orship  to  the  supreme  Person  is  the  same  as 
saying  that  all  nations  agree  in  it;  for  no  nation 
now  known  is  without  one  or  more  religions  for- 
mally assented  to  by  the  great  bulk  of  the  people 
or  by  that  part  which  stamps  the  national  char- 
acter. It  is  claimed  that  a  few  small  clans  or 
tribes  are  entirely  without  any  form  of  religious 
belief  and  worship,  but  even  this  is  by  no  means 
clear.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  perfectly  clear  and 
conceded  on  all  hands  that,  if  some  such  small 
religionless   communities  exist,  they  are  among 


^6  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

the  most  degraded  of  mankind  and  form  an  in- 
considerable part  of  the  race. 

And  it  should  be  noted  that  the  formal  assent 
given  to  worship  by  all  nations,  that  is,  by  hu- 
manity at  large,  is  generally  more  than  formal. 
It  expresses  real  conviction  and  shapes  actual 
conduct.  As  everybody  knows,  there  is  some- 
times a  wide  difference  between  the  actual  views 
and  conduct  of  men  and  the  precepts  and  tone  of 
their  accepted  sacred  books  and  traditions.  The 
Jews  were  often  a  very  unhandsome  translation  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Christendom  is  by  no  means 
all  the  New  Testament  commands  it  to  be,  either 
in  its  thinking  or  in  its  practice.  The  India  of 
to-day  has  diverged  far  from  the  doctrines  and 
practice  of  the  Rig- Veda.  The  present  Buddhist 
does  not  fully  appear  in  the  Tripitaka,  nor  does 
the  present  Moslem  in  the  Koran  nor  the  present 
Parsee  in  the  A  vesta.  But  in  the  matter  of  wor- 
ship the  attitude  of  the  nations  generally  is,  both 
theoretically  and  practically,  that  of  their  sacred 
books  and  creeds.  They  thoroughly  believe  in 
deity  of  some  personal  sort  and  offer  him  some 
sorts  of  reverential  recocjnition  and  tribute  that 
deserve  to  be  called  worship.  These  are  often 
ill-judged,  and  even  discreditable,  as  to  form  and 
method ;  but  then  they  are  real  attempts  to  honor 
and   propitiate    supreme    Deity.      How   small   a 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  T] 

percentage  of  the  Asiatics  neglect  worship,  even 
at  great  cost !  How  few,  relatively,  on  any  conti- 
nent have  never  at  any  time  sincerely  invoked 
supernatural  aid  or  taken  an  attitude  of  reverence 
and  homage  towards  the  Supreme,  and  would  not 
under  like  circumstances  do  the  like  again  !  So 
there  is  a  consensus  of  nations  in  fact  as  well  as 
in  form  in  favor  of  worship. 

This  is  how  the  world  stands  at  present.  How 
has  it  stood  in  the  long  past  ?  For  aught  we  can 
see  (and  we  can  see  a  long  way),  precisely  as  now. 
More  than  1,700  years  ago  Plutarch  wrote,  "If  you 
will  take  the  pains  to  travel  through  the  world 
you  may  find  towns  and  cities  without  walls, 
without  letters,  without  kings,  without  money, 
without  theatres  and  places  of  exercise;  but  there 
never  was  seen,  nor  shall  be  seen  by  man,  any  city 
without  temples  and  gods  or  without  making  use 
of  prayers,  divinations,  and  sacrifices  for  the  ob- 
taining of  blessings  and  the  averting  of  calamities 
and  curses.  Nay,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  a  city 
might  sooner  be  built  without  any  ground  to  stand 
on  than  a  commonwealth  be  constituted  altogether 
void  of  any  religion  and  opinion  of  the  gods,  or, 
being  constituted,  be  preserved."  Lest  this  opin- 
ion of  Plutarch  should  be  thought  too  antiquated 
and  unscientific,  let  Laplace  speak:  "I  have 
lived  lone  enoufrh  to  know  what  at  one  time  I 


78  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

did  not  believe — that  no  society  can  be  upheld 
without  the  sentiment  of  religion."  We  have  a 
laro-er  horizon  than  Plutarch  or  even  the  gfreat 
French  scientist  had,  and  our  historic  telescopes 
pierce  much  more  widely  and  remotely  into  the 
dimness  of  the  past  than  did  theirs;  but  we  are 
obliged  to  tell  the  same  story.  Neither  history 
nor  tradition  carries  us  back  to  a  time  when  men 
as  a  race  were  not  worshippers.  Back  through 
ancient  Britain  and  Gaul  and  Germany,  through 
still  more  ancient  Rome  and  Greece,  through  still 
more  ancient  Egypt  and  Phoenicia  and  Assyria, 
travels  our  searching  gaze  (thanks  to  the  time- 
defying  monuments  and  such  men  as  Tacitus  and 
Herodotus  and  IManetho  and  Berosus  and  Moses) 
till  we  seem  almost  to  see  the  very  cradle  of  the 
race;  and  everywhere,  among  the  most  easily  dis- 
cerned of  all  objects,  are  altars  and  sacrifices  and 
clouds  of  incense  and  votive  offerings  and  shrines 
and  bended  knees  and  uplifted  hands,  in  conse- 
crated groves  or  tabernacles  or  temples.  "It  is 
believed,"  said  Xenophon,  some  400  years  before 
Christ,  ''that  the  gods  have  been  worshipped  by 
all  men  from  the  very  beginning."  There  have 
been,  here  and  there,  worshipless  individuals  (a 
few  freckles  on  the  face  of  the  world),  but  the 
world  as  such  has  always  been  a  worshipping 
world.     The  worship  of  the  true  God  has  some- 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  79 

times  almost  disappeared,  but  worship  of  some 
being  supposed  to  be  supreme  has  not  failed  for 
an  hour,  nor  failed  to  be  almost  universal.  When 
some  Democritus  or  Epicurus  or  Lucretius  has 
ventured  to  speak  against  worship,  either  on  the 
ground  that  there  is  no  God  or  that,  if  he  is,  he 
does  not  concern  himself  with  what  men  do,  the 
great  bulk  of  people  have  looked  on  him  as  a 
monster.  "  Let  the  atheist  drink  the  hemlock," 
said  the  Athenian  democracy.  If  the  masses  of 
humanity  in  every  age  have  not  gone  so  far  as 
this,  they  have  always  gone  so  far  as  to  look  on  a 
worshipless  man  with  wonder  and  horror. 

So  much  stress  have  all  visible  past  ages  laid 
on  worship  that  they  have,  at  almost  boundless 
expense,  dedicated  to  it  the  choicest  work  of  the 
sculptor,  the  painter,  the  architect,  the  musician, 
and  the  poet.  I  am  thinking  of  such  temples  as 
that  of  Belus  at  Babylon,  of  Isis  at  Memphis,  of 
Diana  at  Ephesus,  of  Minerva  at  Athens,  of  Je- 
hovah at  Jerusalem.  I  am  thinking  of  such 
cathedrals  as  those  of  Rome,  Milan,  Cologne  and 
Moscow — indeed,  of  a  host  of  palaces  of  God  be- 
starring  all  Christendom  with  such  wonders  of 
grand  and  beautiful  architecture  as  seem  but  little 
short  of  crystallized  worship,  and  even  tempt  men 
to  almost  worship  the  builders.  To  aid  the  wor^ 
ship  for  which  these  costly  structures  have  been 


So  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

raised  have  been  wrought  the  bravest  works  of 
sculptors  and  painters,  from  Phidias  and  Apelles 
to  Angelo  and  Raphael.  To  aid  the  same  wor- 
ship have  been  prepared  the  noblest  strains  of 
poetry  and  music  that  ever  voiced  human  emo- 
tion, from  David  and  Asaph  to  Moijart  and  Han- 
del. To-day,  if  the  traveller  in  any  country 
wishes  to  see  the  best  it  has  to  offer  in  the  way  of 
high  art,  he  goes  to  its  pagodas  or  mosques  or 
churches.  All  that  the  mere  outward  can  do  to 
encourage  and  dignify  worship  seems  to  have  been 
done;  and  especially,  if  the  reality  of  Christian 
worship  were  now  in  proportion  to  its  magnificent 
symbols  and  conveniences,  the  kingdom  of  God 
among  us  would  not  now  be  merely  the  kingdom 
of  the  sun-rising.  Some  think  that  there  has  been 
no  little  mistake  just  here;  some  of  us  object  to 
statues  and  pictures  and  ecclesiastical  millinery, 
and  perhaps  incline  to  think  that  even  Christian 
sanctuaries  may  be  too  grand  and  costly  in  view 
of  the  vast  needs  of  a  still  unevangelized  w^orld; 
but  of  this  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  the  ex- 
ceeding costliness  of  the  equipment  for  worship 
in  all  lands  and  times  testifies  loudly  to  the  ex- 
ceeding value  of  worship  in  the  opinion  of  man- 
kind. Men  have  not  only  taught  and  practised 
worship  almost  universally,  but  their  sense  of  its 
importance  has  been  such  that  on  no  other  one 


RELIGIOUS   WORSHIP.  8l 

earthly  thing,  perhaps,  have  they  made  so  large 
an  outlay  of  pains  and  genius  and  gold. 

How  came  it  that  the  worship  of  the  supreme 
Person  is  so  widely  believed  in,  practised,  taught, 
and  emphasized  ?  Is  it  from  a  clear  primeval  rev- 
elation ?  Did  God  show  his  will  to  our  first  pa- 
rents in  some  unmistakable  manner;  and  did  they, 
as  they  diverged  from  the  original  centre,  carry 
with  them,  all  over  the  globe  and  down  through 
all  generations,  the  original  law  of  worship? 
Very  likely,  not  to  say  certainly.  But  there  is 
another  great  force  at  work.  Worship  has  in  its 
favor  a  consensus  of  revelation  with  nature  in 
many  forms — with  nature  in  man,  in  brute  organ- 
isms, and  even  in  the  inorganic  world.  Notice, 
first,  the  consensus  with  the  instincts,  needs,  and 
laws  of  human  nature  and  society.  As  the  instinct 
of  a  bird  teaches  it  to  fly,  to  build  a  nest,  to  pro- 
vide suitable  food  for  its  young,  so  men  are  taught 
by  their  instinct  to  worship.  It  acts  in  advance 
of  reason.  It  impels  the  child  to  reverence  its 
parents,  the  adult  to  uncover  before  the  greatness 
of  kings,  sages,  heroes,  and  saints.  It  is  natural 
to  men,  as  natural  as  it  is  to  breathe,  to  hold  in 
honor  great  faculty,  great  knowledge,  great  power, 
great  goodness,  or  great  position,  in  their  fellow- 
men;  and  equally  natural  to  express  this  inward 
honor  by  certain  outward  acts,  as  bowing,  kneel- 

Vnlvsraal  Belief*.  f\ 


82  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

ing,  deferential  looks  and  tones.  So  such  things 
are  required  by  an  immemorial  law  of  society,  as 
sure  and  imperative  as  the  law  of  gravity.  One 
cannot  transgress  the  law  with  impunity.  Should 
he  refuse  altogether  acts  of  honor  and  reverence 
in  his  dealings  with  men,  however  great,  he  would 
not  be  tolerated.  Is  he  a  madman  or  a  fool  ?  So 
they  cast  him  out — out  of  the  synagogue  of  good 
society,  to  herd  with  the  boors  and  pariahs  and 
fellahs  where  he  belongs.  But,  really,  no  one 
ever  succeeds  in  totally  suppressing  the  instinct 
which  prompts  to  outward  tokens  of  veneration 
and  homage,  though  it  often  is  successfully  resist- 
ed and  confined.  And  this  in  presence  of  such 
low  forms  of  greatness  as  exist  in  men.  How 
much  more  in  the  presence  of  such  wondrous 
forms  of  greatness  as  unite  in  God!  One  has  to 
defy  the  promptings  and  instincts  and  laws  of  his 
nature,  if,  on  due  presentation  of  the  idea  of  God, 
he  does  not  feel  powerfully  stressed  towards  all 
possible  tokens  of  reverence,  subordination,  and 
homage.  Will  not  his  stiff  knees  instinctively 
begin  to  bend  at  first  glimpse  of  such  majesty? 
Will  he  not,  ere  he  is  aware,  have  bared  his  brow 
and  awed  his  voice  and  bowed  his  neck  with  its 
iron  sinew  at  the  sight  of  such  unparalleled  pow- 
er and  knowledge  and  position  and  everything 
that  is  great  ? 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  83 

Also,  various  needs  of  the  individual  and  of  so- 
ciety require  worship.  Real  prayer  emphasizes 
the  sense  of  dependence  on  God — a  sense  that 
needs  to  be  emphasized,  we  are  so  prone  to  self- 
sufficiency  and  forgetfulness  of  the  Supreme,  so 
apt  to  look  supremely  at  second  causes,  so  given 
to  act  independently  of  a  higher  will  and  wisdom 
than  our  own,  and  so  to  incur  innumerable  dan- 
gers and  damages.  Real  thanksgiving  emphasizes 
our  sense  of  obligation  to  the  supreme  Benefac- 
tor— a  sense  the  absence  of  which  is  shocking  and 
damnable  and  sure  of  punishment,  and  yet  one  to 
which  men  tend  with  an  almost  irresistible  gravity 
and  depravity.  In  short,  every  real  act  of  rever-, 
ent  homage  paid  to  God  calls  him  up  distinctly 
before  the  thought;  and  if  the  acts  of  worship  are 
frequent  and  habitual,  they  make  him,  as  it  were, 
an  abiding  presence.  The  effect  can  hardly  be 
other  than  salutary  in  the  highest  degree.  Con- 
sider what  God  is.  He  is  glorious  company.  All 
that  is  low  and  unworthy  naturally  stands  abashed 
in  His  presence.  All  that  is  high  and  worthy  nat- 
urally lifts  its  head  and  blooms  and  rejoices  as  in 
a  orlorious  sunshine.  If  "he  that  walks  with  wise 
men  shall  be  wise,"  how  much  more  he  that 
walks  with  God!  "Into  the  same  image,  from 
glory  to  glory,"  is  the  natural  sequence  of  a  di- 
vine companionship,  and  so  of  a  close  companion- 


84  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

ship  with  the  divine  idea  vividly  held.  As  "evil 
communications  corrupt  good  manners,"  so  grand 
and  holy  communications  improve  them.  Here, 
too,  we  have  the  outcome  of  a  natural  law^,  pro- 
found and  far-reaching,  covering  the  whole  veg- 
etable and  animal  kingdoms,  the  general  expres- 
sion of  which  is  that  "like  begets  like."  The 
solicitude  of  parents  and  others  as  to  the  company, 
whether  of  persons  or  of  books,  w^hich  the  young 
keep  roots  itself  finally  in  a  conviction  of  the 
truth  and  commanding  character  of  this  law,  a 
law  which  is  so  recognized  in  every  department 
of  observation  and  science  that  deals  with  organic 
nature  that  not  to  know  and  act  upon  it  is  im- 
scientific.  This  law  bids  every  man,  as  he  values 
the  health  of  his  soul  and  the  moral  success  of  his 
life  in  this  world,  to  worship  God  regularly  and 
often.  The  individual  needs  worship  to  meet  the 
instinct  of  worship,  to  satisfy  the  aesthetic  nature, 
to  fulfil  the  sense  of  the  "beautiful  and  fitting," 
to  quiet  conscience,  to  restrain  the  bad  and  bring 
forward  the  good  within  him;  also,  as  most  per- 
sons think,  to  escape  great  penalties  and  secure 
great  rewards  from  One  who  said,  "Those  who 
honor  me  I  will  honor,  and  those  who  despise  m.e 
shall  be  lightly  esteemed."  Society  needs  wor- 
ship as  fostering  reverence  for  authority  and  law, 
a  spirit  of  just  subordination,  respect  for  the  rights 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  85 

of  Others,  a  sense  of  a  higher  government  that  can 
deal  with  the  springs  of  conduct  in  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  which  no  civil  government  can 
reach— in  short,  as  being  the  sworn  foe  of  that 
levelling  spirit  which  under  various  names  now 
so  gravely  threatens  the  welfare,  if  not  the  very 
existence,  of  society.  All  these  needs,  bottom- 
inof  themselves  in  certain  instincts  and  laws  of 
organic  nature,  make  with  revelation  a  consen- 
sus in  favor  of  worship  which,  no  doubt,  has  had 
much  to  do  with  making  it  practically  univer- 
sal, not  only  with  all  denominations  of  Chris- 
tians and  the  chief  religious  and  sacred  books, 
but  also  with  all  nations  and  ages  of  mankind  as 
far  as  known. 

There  is  also  another  consensus,  in  which  in- 
organic nature  joins  with  the  organic.  Plants, 
brutes,  and  especially  men,  show  a  host  of  mar- 
vellous contrivances  which  we  know  to  have  had 
a  beginning,  and  also  know  to  be  infinitely  beyond 
what  man  can  make  or  even  understand.  Inor- 
ganic nature  makes  a  like  showing.  Light,  heat, 
gravity,  electricity,  air,  water,  soil,  the  various 
chemical  elements  with  their  affinities  and  laws 
of  combination,  all  speak  of  a  wisdom  and  power 
quite  unfathomable  by  us.  And  through  both 
organic  and  inorganic  worlds  runs  a  conspicuous 
vein  of  unity  that  implies  the  unity  of  their  ]Maker. 


86  UNIVERSAI.   BELIEFS. 

This  joint  testimony  of  the  two  great  kingdoms 
of  nature  to  the  greatness  of  the  one  God  is  really 
a  joint  testimony  to  his  worshipfulness.  It  says, 
as  does  the  Bible,  "Oh,  come,  let  us  worship  and 
bow  down;  let  us  kneel  before  the  Lord  our 
Maker."  And  it  says  it  loudly,  so  loudly  that 
"there  is  no  speech  nor  language  where  their 
voice  is  not  heard:  their  line  is  gone  out  into  all 
the  earth,  and  their  words  to  the  end  of  the 
world,"  making  even  the  heathen  "without  ex- 
cuse because  that  when  they  knew  God  they  glori- 
fied him  not  as  God,  neither  were  thankful." 

As  w^e  have  seen,  the  idea  of  a  Being  standing 
on  the  summit  of  existence,  and  practically  infinite 
in  faculty  as  compared  with  men,  is  held  and  has 
always  been  held,  so  far  as  we  can  discover,  with 
unquestioning  faith  by  the  great  bulk  of  mankind 
as  well  as  by  its  wisest  and  best.  And  now  we  see 
that  worship  of  this  great  Being  is  about  as  widely 
accepted  as  is  the  Being  himself.  No  denomina- 
tion of  Christians,  no  class  of  religionists,  no  sa- 
cred waiting,  no  nation  the  broad  world  over,  no 
age  the  broad  historic  and  traditional  past  over, 
but  summons  men  to  w^orship  as  the  muezzin  from 
his  minaret  does  the  Moslem.  That  ereat  com- 
posite  voice  rolls  round  the  world,  and  all  the  more 
because  there  blends  wdth  it  and  lifts  under  it  a 
mighty  ground-swell  of  sympathetic  sound  from 


RELIGIOUS   WORSHIP.  87 

all  parts  of  great  nature,  both  organic  and  inor- 
ganic, but  especially  from  the  instincts  and  needs 
and  laws  of  human  nature. 

And  yet  there  are  those  in  Christian  lands  (far 
more  there  than  elsewhere)  whose  voices  are  not 
heard  in  this  great  chorus.  They  never  pray  in 
the  closet.  They  never  pray  in  the  family.  They 
never  offer  that  act  of  worship  which  consists  in 
reading  the  Scriptures.  They  are  seldom,  if  ever, 
found  at  prayer-meeting  or  sanctuary ;  and  if 
found  there  it  is  not  as  genuine  worshippers. 
The  form  is  hollow.  As  they  go  and  as  they 
stay,  there  is  in  them  no  conscious  sense  of  deal- 
ing directly  with  God  in  an  act  of  homage.  When 
the  minister  prays  they  do  not  join  in  the  adora- 
tion or  supplication  or  thanksgiving,  though,  it 
may  be,  they  bow  the  head  in  deference  to  usage. 
When  the  minister  reads  and  expounds  and  en- 
forces the  Scriptures,  the  listening,  more  or  less, 
which  they  give  is  not  as  to  the  oracles  of  God, 
but  as  to  the  words  of  a  man.  And  yet  these  men 
are  not  all  atheists.  ]\Iany  of  them  admit  that 
there  is  a  God  and  that  he  is  as  worshipful  as  the 
Bible  represents. 

Let  these  men  consider  how  they  stand.  They 
stand  practically  alone.  Even  their  own  selves  do 
not  stand  by  them.  Neither  their  instincts  nor 
their  consciences  nor  their  reasons  give  them  any 


88  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

support  in  the  unworsliipping  attitude  they  hold. 
In  addition,  they  are  vigorously  attacked  in  it  by 
the  example  and  the  convictions  of  humanity  at 
large  in  all  ages,  and  by  the  demands  of  every  sys- 
tem of  religion  that  has  undertaken  to  teach  men. 
Revelation  is  against  them,  and  science  itself  is 
ao-ainst  them,  if  science  includes  the  laws  of  hu- 
man  nature  (the  laws  on  which  human  society 
rests  as  to  its  welfare,  if  not  its  existence),  and  at 
least  two  laws  which  are  more  general  still,  viz. : 
like  begets  like,  and,  a  wise  man,  shut  up  to  one 
of  two  courses,  takes  the  more  promising  one  of 
the  two.  If  the  Bible  is  true,  there  is  wrath  in 
store  for  the  man  who  never  prays  or  otherwise 
puts  forth  acts  of  honor  and  homage  towards  the 
heavens ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  heaven  is  in 
store  for  him  who  genuinely  worships.  So  a  wor- 
shipless  man  sins  against  the  law  of  self-preserva- 
tion. He  is  disastrously  singular  and  inconsistent 
with  himself.  What,  perhaps,  he  will  think  a 
heavier  charge,  he  is  unscientific,  in  that  he  re- 
fuses to  be  taught  by  an  immense  induction  of 
facts  that  worship  has  the  suffrage  of  human  na- 
ture and  is  greatly  rewarding,  while  it  would  be 
hard  to  mention  an  evil  or  dano^er  belonsfine  to  it. 
He  is  unscientific,  inasmuch  as  every  science  tes- 
tifies to  the  infinite  greatness  and  worthiness  of 
God,  and  so  to  the  naturalness  and  oblisfation  on 


RELIGIOUS  WORSHIP.  89 

our  part  of  all  possible  acts  of  reverence  and  liom- 
ao-e.     He  is  tlie  scientific  man  who  is  Baconian 

o 

enough  to  be  guided  by  an  experimental  philoso- 
phy, that  is,  by  the  experience  of  mankind,  which 
is  one  with  its  logic  in  saying  to  us,  Worship 
God. 


V.  EFFICACIOUS  PRAYER 


Evxeo^ai''  ^avreg  de  OeCJv  xariova'  av''Jpozoi. 

HOMER. 

Pray,  for  all  men  require  the  aid  of  the  gods. 


Kai  yup  re  KLrai  eiat  I!^tbc  Kovpal  fiejaXoLo : 
Of  fitv  r'  oldiaeral  Kovpag  Atog  uacov  LovaaQ 
Tov  6e  (jLiy  uvfjaav  Kal  r'  tK^JVov  ei'XOfti^voto. 

HOMER. 

Prayers  are  the  daughters  of  great  Zeus  :  whoever  re- 
veres them  as  they  approach  him,  they  greatly  aid  and  listen 
to  his  entreaties. 


The  supplication  of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much. 

St.  James. 


EFFICACIOUS   PRAYER.  93 


V.  EFFICACIOUS  PRAYER. 

By  efficacious  prayer  I  mean  prayer  that  lias 
influence  with  Deity  to  secure  the  things  asked  for. 

I  have  shown  a  consensus  of  religions  and 
mankind  in  favor  of  worship.  But  there  is  also 
an  equal  consensus  in  favor  of  the  efficacy  of  that 
part  of  worship  which  we  call  prayer.  Not  effi- 
cacy for  securing  all  the  objects  one  chooses  to 
pray  for,  but  for  securing  such  of  them  as  do  not 
conflict  with  the  divine  will.  The  world-feeling 
has  always  been  that  many  such  things  are  grant- 
ed in  answer  to  prayer  which  would  not  be  granted 
without. 

Some  in  Christian  lands  dissent.  Perhaps 
they  quote  an  ancient  parable,  as  follows:  A  cer- 
tain man  was  on  his  death-bed.  He  called  his 
sons  to  him  and  said,  "My  dear  children,  I  have 
a  treasure  of  great  value  hidden  somewhere  in  my 
fields:  when  I  am  gone  dig  for  it  and  you  will  be 
sure  to  find  it."  After  the  funeral  the  sons  set  to 
work.  With  great  diligence  and  perseverance 
they  dug  the  whole  farm  over.  They  found 
neither  gold  nor  jewels  nor  anything  else  they 
had  expected ;  but  as  they  dug  they  found  appe- 


g^  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

tite,  strength,  health,  habits  of  industry ;  more- 
over, the  land,  so  thoroughly  broken  up  and  ex- 
posed to  sun  and  air,  gave  magnificent  crops. 
Then  they  understood  what  treasure  their  wise 
father  meant. 

*'Such,"  say  some,  ''is  the  experience  of 
those  who  pray  for  particular  things.  They  do 
not  get  the  good  they  seek,  but  they  do  get  a  very 
good  substitute  for  it  in  the  moral  exercise  and 
culture  which  the  praying  involves.  And  this  is 
all  that  they  get.  The  praying  has  no  tendency 
whatever  to  secure  the  thing  prayed  for.  Noth- 
ing is  gained  by  application  to  Deity  which  would 
not  come  without  the  application.  He  is  immuta- 
ble. He  will  do  what  seems  to  him  good  without 
regard  to  our  judgment  and  wishes.  And  he  ought 
to  do  so  if  he  is  infinitely  wiser  and  better  than 
we." 

But  this  is  not  the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures.  On 
the  contrary,  they  attack  it  as  with  drawn  swords. 
"Elias  was  a  man  subject  to  like  passions  as  we 
are,  and  he  prayed  earnestly  that  it  might  not 
rain,  and  it  rained  not  on  the  earth  by  the  space 
of  three  years  and  six  months.  And  he  prayed 
again,  and  the  heaven  gave  rain  and  the  earth 
brought  forth  her  fruit."  "And  this  is  the  con- 
fidence that  we  have  in  Him,  that  if  we  ask  any- 
thing according  to  his  will,  he  heareth  us:  and  if 


EFFICACIOUS    PRAYER.  95 

we  know  that  he  hear  us,  whatsoever  we  ask,  we 
know  that  we  have  the  petitions  we  desired  of 
him."  "  What  nation  hath  God  so  nigh  to  them 
as  is  the  Lord  our  God  in  all  things  that  we  call 
upon  him  for?"  "All  things  whatsoever  ye  shall 
ask  in  prayer,  believing,  ye  shall  receive."  "If 
any  man  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,  and  it 
shall  be  given  him."  "How  much  more  shall 
your  Heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
them  who  ask  him!"  And  so  on  to  almost  any 
extent.  Whatever  limitations  of  such  compre- 
hensive language  may  be  required  by  common 
sense  and  the  nature  of  the  case,  they  evidently 
do  not  touch  the  doctrine  of  efficacious  prayer 
that  vitally  pervades  the  whole  as  blood  does  an 
animal  body.  You  cannot  prick  the  body  any- 
where without  finding  blood.  So  many  are  the 
examples  of  the  granting  of  specific  requests  by 
a  prayer-hearing  God  to  the  Hannahs  and  Davids 
and  Hezekiahs  and  Elijahs  of  the  Bible,  so  many 
are  its  general  encouragements  to  expect  that  in 
many  cases  the  exact  things  asked  for  will  be 
granted,  that  were  we  to  cite  them  all  we  should 
have  an  army,  an  army  quite  too  large  to  be  han- 
dled on  the  small  field  at  our  disposal.  But  it  is 
not  necessary.  No  intelligent  believer  in  the 
Bible  but  believes  in  efficacious  prayer. 

Similar  is  the  teaching  of  the  Koran.     Prayer, 


96  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

fasting,  alms,  and  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  are  the 
four  great  points  of  Mohammedan  duty.  Five 
times  each  day  the  minaret  calls  to  prayer;  five 
times  a  day  the  faithful,  wherever  they  may  be 
and  however  engaged,  fall  on  their  knees  with 
faces  towards  Mecca;  for  is  it  not  written,  "Prayer 
is  the  pillar  of  religion  and  the  key  to  Paradise"? 
And  though  the  Koran  teaches  that  all  things  are 
so  fated  that  they  cannot  be  otherwise  than  they 
are,  yet  the  faithful  do  not  allow  that  this  is  at  all 
inconsistent  with  the  efficacy  of  prayer  in  procu- 
ring the  blessings  prayed  for.  Accordingly,  they 
pray  for  all  sorts  cf  things,  just  as  Christians  of 
every  name  are  accustomed  to  do — for  daily  bread, 
for  success  in  their  enterprises,  for  prolific  flocks 
and  herds,  for  protection  in  dangers,  for  guidance 
in  perplexities,  for  pardon  of  sin,  for  the  spread  of 
their  faith,  for  final  salvation — indeed,  just  as  all 
the  polytheistic  nations  have  been  doing  from  at 
least  the  beginning  of  our  acquaintance  with  them. 
They  have  asked  their  gods  for  whatever  they 
wanted,  from  a  crust  to  a  throne,  from  some  feath- 
er of  a  private  convenience  to  a  solar  system  of 
national  victories.  The  habits  of  the  old  Greeks 
and  Romans  have  long  been  known  to  general 
scholars;  but  more  lately  the  studies  of  antiqua- 
ries, missionaries,  and  travellers  have  shown  that 
the  same  habits  have  prevailed   among  all  the 


EFF^ICACIOUS  PRAYER.  97 

great  nations,  ancient  and  modern.  They  have 
prayed,  not  as  a  mere  decorous  form,  not  because 
of  the  culture- value  of  the  exercise  (of  which  they 
knew  nothing  and  cared  as  little) ;  but  because 
they  supposed  that  there  was  at  least  a  possibility 
of  their  getting  by  their  prayers  the  particular 
things  they  wanted.  They  were  not  sure.  The 
Deity  might  be  propitious  or  he  might  not.  He 
might  think  it  best  to  grant  or  he  might  not.  At 
any  rate,  prayer  was  worth  the  trying.  That 
prayers  were  often  successful,  that  in  almost  any 
given  case  they  might  be,  that  their  general  stress 
is  to  procure  from  Deity  the  favors  which  they 
aim  at,  so  that  one  in  the  use  of  them  would  in 
the  long  run  make  great  gains  not  otherwise  pro- 
curable, has  been  universally  held.  The  nations 
have  not  been  philosophers.  They  have  not  asked 
for  things  because  they  thought  the  exercise  of 
praying  would  do  them  good  as  so  much  gymnas- 
tics might  do  their  bodies,  but  because  they  wmiU 
ed  certain  things  and  thought  that  asking  for 
them  was  a  likely,  or  at  least  a  possible,  means  to 
their  end.  This  thought  has  really  lain  at  the 
bottom  of  all  the  bended  knees  and  lifted  hands 
and  outcries  heavenward  that  have  besought  in 
grove  or  pagoda  or  mosque  or  tabernacle  or  tem- 
ple or  synagogue  or  church  or  closet  from  remo- 
test antiquity.     Were  men  to  understand  that  the 

UnirerBal  Belipfs.  7 


98  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

prayerless  are  just  as  likely  as  the  prayerful  to  get 
what  they  want  at  the  hands  of  the  Supreme, 
prayer  would  disappear  from  the  face  of  the  earth ; 
not  at  once  perhaps,  for  old  habits  are  powerful; 
but  as  the  dew  disappears,  or  as  the  showers  which 
have  drenched  the  ground  gradually  evaporate 
until  at  last  the  fields  are  black  with  drought  and 
famine. 

Efficacious  prayer  is  what  we  have  some  a  pri- 
ori reason  to  expect.  In  the  present  absence  of 
miracles  w^e  seem  to  need  some  way  of  realizing  to 
ourselves  the  continued  presence  and  agency  of 
God  in  human  affairs,  some  w^ay  within  reach  of 
everybody.  We  are  born  and  bred  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  great  works  of  nature.  Day  and  night, 
each  day  and  all  day,  they  meet  us  at  every  turn, 
till  they  are  as  familiar  as  our  owm  selves.  The 
familiarity  does  not  breed  contempt,  but  it  does 
breed  inattention  and  insensibility.  The  wonder- 
ful heavens  and  earth  do  not  call  out  wonder. 
They  affect  us  no  more  than  does  the  constant 
ticking  of  the  old  family  clock  that  from  its  cor- 
ner looked  down  on  our  cradles.  We  have  to 
shake  ourselves.  We  have  to  shout  to  our  absent- 
minded  eyes  and  ears,  "Wake  up,  man  !  Look  ! 
Listen  !  Will  you  allow  all  these  great  things  to 
be  to  you  as  if  they  were  not?"  And  when  by  a 
strusrgfle  we  have  managed  to  2:et  into  a  wakeful 


EFFICACIOUS   PRAYER.  99 

state,  even  then  we  are  only  too  apt  to  look  on  the 
glorious  constitution  and  course  of  nature  as  on 
some  ancient  clock  that  was  made  and  wound  up 
ages  ago  after  a  very  enduring  fashion,  and  con- 
tinues to  go  on  quite  of  itself.  The  adversary 
tempts  us.  Does  the  Power  that  in  some  far-off 
time  set  up  the  present  system  of  things  still  abide 
as  an  open-eyed  and  active  agent  within  it?  Let 
us  make  trial;  let  us  pray.  And  so  the  prayers  go 
up;  and  every  now  and  then,  we  will  suppose, 
fulfilments  come  down  so  circumstantially  and 
intrinsically  agreeing  with  the  prayers  that  no 
theory  of  mere  hap-hazard  or  of  secondary  causa- 
tion can  reasonably  explain  the  agreement.  The 
Baconian  starts.  "Then,  after  all,  God  is  not 
dead;  after  all,  he  is  not  a  mere  antiquity;  nor  is 
he  an  unhearing  and  unthinking  force  eternally 
coursing  through  the  veins  and  arteries  of  eternal 
nature,  mutually  convertible  with  electricity  and 
gravity  and  what  not,  but  a  Person  who  to-day 
and  here  and  in  my  petty  concerns  has  open  eyes 
and  ears  and  ready-sceptred  hands."  And  as  ful- 
filment after  fulfilment  rolls  up  evidence  after  evi- 
dence till  a  mountain  touches  heaven  and  faith 
practically  becomes  sight,  he  will  come  to  ex- 
claim, "Surely  the  Lord  was  in  this  place  and  I 
knew  it  not;  surely  he  is  not  far  from  any  one  of 
us;  but  in  him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 


lOO  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

being."  Such  a  means  of  bringing  God  nigli  to 
every  man  seems  exceedingly  desirable.  It  is  by 
no  means  unlikely  that  such  a  God  as  the  Bible 
describes  would  provide  what  we  need.  It  is  a 
thine  to  be  looked  for  rather  than  otherwise.  In- 
stead  of  being  surprised  at  some  undeniable  answer 
to  prayer,  as  one  might  be  by  the  falling  of  rain 
from  a  clear  sky  or  by  sunshine  at  midnight,  one 
should  feel  it  to  be  so  entirely  accordant  with 
wdiat  he  would  naturally  expect  in  the  case  as  to 
call  for  no  surprise  whatever,  however  much  of 
admiration  and  gratitude  it  may  demand.  It  is 
the  natural  corollary  of  a  Biblical  Theism,  or  in- 
deed, for  that  matter,  of  any  respectable  Theism. 
All  the  logic  in  the  preliminaries  of  the  case  looks 
towards  efficacious  prayer. 

But  the  fulfilments  just  supposed  are  not  mere 
suppositions.  The  efficacy  of  prayer  is  matter  of 
experience — of  so  many  experiences  that  the  gath- 
ering together  of  the  waters  makes  seas,  which  add 
a  very  loud  voice  indeed  to  that  of  the  united  reli- 
gions, faiths,  and  practices  of  mankind.  It  is  on 
unimpeachable  testimony  that  great  numbers  of 
Christians  have  actually  had  their  prayers  for  spe- 
cific favors  so  minutely  fulfilled  that  no  explana- 
tion of  the  fact  other  than  that  of  divine  inter- 
ference for  the  purpose  of  fulfilling  is  scientifically 
tolerable.     Perhaps   there   are  few  Christians  of 


EFFICACIOUS   PRAYER.  lOI 

long  standing  who  have  not  had  one  or  more  such 
convincing  answers.  The  elaborate  likeness  of 
what  they  have  received  to  w^iat  they  asked  for 
is  such  as,  all  circumstances  considered,  no  doc- 
trine of  chances  or  merely  natural  law  can  account 
for.  The  fulfilment  is  a  careful  portrait  of  the 
prayer.  Do  portraits  happen  ?  Are  they  ground 
out  by  some  blind  grist-mill?  Of  course  there  are 
many  doubtful  cases.  Mere  nature  and  the  toss- 
up  and  whirligig  of  circumstances  will  so  suffice 
for  the  explanation  of  some  coincidences  that  we 
cannot  appeal  to  them  as  proving  the  efficacy  of 
prayer;  but,  after  these  have  been  set  aside,  enough 
are  left  to  set  our  doctrine  on  the  broadest  sort  of 
a  scientific  foundation,  not  to  say  on  a  throne. 
There  is  just  now  a  great  outcry  for  facts,  induc- 
tions, and  Bacons.  We  do  not  complain  of  it; 
we  join  it  rather.  Let  these  outcrying  people 
read  a  few  of  the  many  books  filled  with  detailed 
narratives  of  prayer  that  went  straight  to  heaven 
and  came  back  with  just  the  things  prayed  for, 
and,  if  considerate  and  frank,  they  will  allow  that, 
thousfh  some  of  the  narratives  are  not  conclusive, 
there  are  others,  and  many  of  them,  which  can- 
not reasonably  be  explained  save  on  the  theory  of 
a  prayer-hearing  God. 

Some  neglecters  of  prayer  give  no  reason  for 
their  neglect;  but  others,  and  not  a  few  in  these 


I02  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

days,  put  on  airs  of  science  and  declare  that  the 
reign  of  law  warrants  them  in  believing  that  prayer 
can  be  of  no  use  as  a  means  of  procuring  bless- 
ings. 

They  speak  somewhat  after  this  manner  :  "It 
is  now  conceded  that  law  reigns  everywhere  and 
always.  Absolutely  nothing  is  free  of  its  sceptre. 
Politics,  business,  domestic  affairs,  mind,  reli- 
gion— one  cannot  mention  a  single  thing,  how- 
ever small,  whether  in  the  material  or  spiritual 
world,  which  is  not  as  much  subject  to  law  as  are 
chemical  atoms  and  revolving  planets.  And  the 
laws  of  nature  are  adamantine.  They  never  give 
way,  nor  even  give,  for  a  single  moment.  '  With- 
out variableness  or  shadow  of  turning'  describes 
them  as  well  as  their  reputed  Author.  The  con- 
stitution of  things  does  not  alter ;  their  modes  of 
acting  and  of  being  acted  on  do  not  change ;  every 
event  takes  place  under  the  stress  of  forces  per- 
fectly fixed  in  their  natures  and  methods  of  work- 
ing. Consequently  the  natural  sequence  of  things 
is  never  disturbed.  What  will  happen  to-morrow 
or  next  year  or  a  thousand  years  hence  is  foreor- 
dained in  the  unchanging  nature  of  things,  and 
is  just  as  sure  and  settled  a  matter  as  any  event 
of  yesterday.  It  is  necessary  that  it  should  be  so. 
There  must  be  opportunity  for  science.  Human 
life  must  have  something  solid  to  depend  upon. 


EFFICACIOUS   PRAYER.  IO3 

The  various  parts  of  great  nature  are  so  grooved 
and  tongued,  so  mortised  and  dovetailed  into  one 
another,  that  a  break  in  one  means  a  break  in  all. 
When  a  full,  swift  river  breaks  through  its  banks, 
or  a  train  of  cars  leaps  from  the  rails,  we  expect 
disaster;  so  we  must  look  for  still  greater  disaster 
if  at  any  time  the  great  forces  of  nature  break 
aw^ay  from  their  tracks  and  channels.  To  sup- 
pose that  anything  we  can  say  will  induce  the 
Creator  to  break  up  the  order  of  nature  which,  for 
wise  reasons,  he  has  himself  established,  is  to  sup- 
pose that  he  can  be  brought  to  work  for  us  not 
only  a  miracle,  but  an  unwise  and  self-stultifying 
miracle." 

Sufficient  answer  to  this  objection  from  the 
reign  of  law  is  that  it  is  equally  good  against  the 
efficacy  of  prayer  as  between  man  and  man.  Does 
a  man  who  grants  me  a  favor  which  I  have  asked 
him  for  necessarily  violate  a  law  of  nature?  From 
the  foundation  of  the  world  has  any  human  being 
interfered  with  the  reign  of  law  by  conferring  a 
favor  in  answer  to  prayer?  If  successful  petitions 
mean  the  downbreak  of  law,  then  law  lies  in  ruins 
all  over  the  world — indeed,  can  hardly  be  said  to 
have  ever  reigiled  on  the  planet  within  the  human 
period,  the  cases  of  successful  petitions  having 
been  so  immensely  numerous  always  and  every- 
where. 


104  UNIVERSAL    BEUEFS. 

Children  abound  in  successful  petitions. 
"May  I  have  this?"  '^Will  you  let  me  go  to 
my  play?"  And  so  on.  Though  the  answer 
which  the  child  gets  is  often  a  negative,  it  is  also 
often  an  affirmative.  He  gets  what  he  asked. 
Is  the  order  of  nature  wrecked?  Suppose  our 
philosopher  should  say  to  a  child  caught  in  the 
act  of  beoforingf  a  favor  from  his  father,  "You  fool- 
ish  boy  !  I  am  ashamed  of  you.  Do  you  not 
know  that  everything  is  settled  in  the  bonds  of 
law  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  if  not  ear- 
lier, and  that,  in  order  to  gratify  you,  your  father 
will  have  to  work  a  miracle?  How  absurd  in  you 
to  ask  him  to  do  what  he  cannot  do !"  Do  men 
talk  to  children  in  this  vein?  And  when  the 
children  have  gotten  what  they  asked,  are  they 
sadly  told  that  they  have  gotten  a  disastrous  mir- 
acle? Why,  then,  are  God's  children  talked  to 
in  this  way  ?  Is  he  the  only  father  w^ho  cannot 
say  and  do  "Yes"  to  the  prayers  of  his  little  ones 
without  upsetting  the  order  of  nature  ? 

In  a  school  the  pupils  often  bring  requests  to 
their  teacher — for  explanations,  for  indulgences, 
and  so  on.  Suppose  one  of  our  philosophers 
should  say  to  one  of  these  petitioning  pupils, 
"My  boy,  I  am  disappointed  in  you.  You  are 
old  enough  to  know^  better.  Do  you  not  know 
that  educational  matters,  as  well  as  all  others,  are 


EFFICACIOUS    PRAYER.  IO5 

held  fast  in  the  grip  of  unchangeable  law ;  that 
law  jealously  guards  the  whole  coast  of  being, 
-and  allows  none  to  land  save  her  own  children  ; 
that  your  teacher  cannot  grant  what  you  ask  with- 
out working  a  miracle,  and  a  bad  one  at  that?" 
Do  men  talk  to  man's  pupils  in  this  way?  And 
after  the  pupils  have  got  what  they  asked,  as  they 
so  often  do,  are  they  told  with  affrighted  faces  that 
great  nature  is  out  of  joint  almost  or  quite  beyond 
setting?  Why,  then,  is  this  told  to  God's  schol- 
ars when  they  are  found  asking  him  for  light  and 
guidance  on  dark  subjects  and  in  dark  ways?  Is 
he  the  only  teacher  who  cannot  say  and  do  "Yes" 
to  the  asking  souls  who  are  in  course  of  training 
under  him  without  breaking  down  the  reign  of  law? 
Suppose  the  philosopher  should  say  to  the  ten 
thousand  office-seekers  who  are  asking  positions 
from  princes  and  presidents  and  prosperous  busi- 
ness firms,  "I  never  saw  such  unreasonable  con- 
duct. Stop  all  that,  in  the  name  of  common 
sense  and  accepted  science !  Do  you  not  know 
that  it  is  agreed  on  all  hands  among  scientific  men 
that  law  reigns  in  politics  and  business  as  thor- 
oughly as  among  planets  and  atoms ;  that  the  as. 
signments  of  postofQces  and  clerkships,  as  well  as 
of  places  in  the  Cabinet,  are  all  determined  in  the 
very  constitution  of  things  from  their  very  begin- 
ning, if  indeed  they  ever  had  a  beginning?     The 


Io6  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

great  machine,  having  a  fixed  nature  and  struc- 
ture, can  turn  out  certain  products  and  no  others. 
Do  you  suppose  that  the  President  will  or  can 
break  up  the  constitution  and  course  of  nature  for 
you  ?' '  Do  men  talk  in  this  way  to  those  who  are 
knocking  at  the  doors  of  the  White  House  as  if 
they  would  beat  them  down?  And  when  they 
find  the  applicant  gaining  what  he  applied  for, 
and  becoming  Mr.  Secretary  or  Mr.  Collector  or 
Mr.  Commissioner,  as  very  often  happens,  do  these 
enlightened  objectors  insist  upon  it  that  miracles 
have  been  wrought  and  that  all  the  foundations 
of  the  earth  are  out  of  course?  Why,  then,  do 
they  talk  in  this  sage  vein  to  their  fellow-subjects 
in  God's  kingdom  who  are  found  asking  favors  of 
their  King  ?  Is  his  the  only  government  which 
cannot  say  and  do  "Yes"  to  petitioning  subjects 
without  breaking  the  sceptre  and  overturning  the 
throne  of  law  ? 

If  it  would  be  ridiculous  for  one  to  talk  after 
such  a  fashion  in  regard  to  the  petitions  that  pass, 
and  successfully  pass,  in  such  profusion  between 
men,  is  it  wise  for  him  to  talk  in  the  same  way 
about  God,  as  if  He  cannot  grant  a  prayer  without 
throwing  the  universe  into  confusion  and  laying 
violent  hands  on  his  own  rules?  Is  he  the  only 
person  who  is  so  fettered  that  he  cannot  or  must 
not  grant  a  petition  ? 


EFFICACIOUS   PRAYER.  IO7 

In  fact,  neither  man  nor  God  is  under  the  ne- 
cessity of  setting  aside  natural  law  in  order  to 
answer  prayer.  Neither  has  to  do  more  than  I  do 
when  I  cast  a  stone  upward.  I  overcome  the 
force  of  gravity  by  my  superior  force.  And  we 
all  bring  about  events  every  day  by  using  natural 
laws  and  forces— by  guiding  them,  by  combining 
and  resolving  them;  in  short,  by  governing  other 
forces  that  were  made  to  be  governed  by  our  su- 
perior force.  So  God  may  do,  only  of  course  in 
an  infinitely  greater  degree.  He  can  do  it  with- 
out even  suspending  a  single  law  for  a  single 
moment.  That  he  actually  does  so  we  are  bound 
to  believe,  unless  we  would  defy  the  natural  pre- 
sumptions of  the  case,  the  manifold  teachings  of 
the  Bible,  the  science  of  Christian  experience,  and 
the  general  voice  of  mankind  in  all  times  and 
lands. 

What  is  this  doctrine  of  prayer  that  has  in  its 
favor  such  a  great  consensus?  Not  that  prayer 
always  secures  its  object,  not  that  it  can  ever  be 
relied  on  to  bring  that  object  immediately,  but 
that,  in  addition  to  its  general  moral  and  religious 
influence  on  the  character  of  the  petitioner,  it 
avails  much  to  secure  in  some  suitable  time  and 
way  the  suitable  specific  things  asked  for.  This 
is  the  doctrine  that  deserves  to  be  true  and  that 
has  the  consent  of  all  the  sacred  books  and  creeds 


Io8  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

and  traditions;  that  is  to  say,  of  either  human  na- 
ture itself,  with  all  its  outcrying  instincts  and 
needs,  or  of  that  primeval  revelation  at  the  knee 
of  which  the  lisping  infancy  of  our  race  was  taught 
to  join  its  hands  to  pray. 

And  what  says  this  doctrine  to  prayerless  peo- 
ple ?  There  are  some  such  in  Christian  lands. 
They  rise  from  their  beds  without  prayer  and 
compose  themselves  to  sleep  without  it.  They 
ask  many  things  from  earth,  but  never  anything 
from  heaven.  Days  come  and  go,  years  melt  into 
years,  enterprises  are  begun  and  prosecuted  and 
finished,  perplexities,  emergencies,  prosperities, 
and  adversities  succeed  one  another  through  all 
the  checkered  scene,  and  yet  not  a  single  petition 
Godward  in  behalf  of  this  world  or  the  next  goes 
up  from  their  lips  or  hearts.  I  mistake;  there  is 
an  emergency  that  sometimes  brings  these  people 
to  their  knees.  Let  their  boat  upset  or  their  car 
go  plunging  down  a  precipice;  in  short,  let  them 
be  called  to  look  death  squarely  and  closely  in  the 
eye,  and  they  will  be  very  apt  to  cry  to  God  for 
help,  as  did  Volney  on  stormy  Lake  Erie.  The 
human  nature  within  them  cries  out  almost  before 
they  are  aware.  But  for  the  most  part  and  for 
years  together  their  asking  goes  out  only  towards 
men.  Is  there  any  God?  To  look  at  these  men 
one  would  hardly  think  it. 


EFFICACIOUS    PRAYER.  IO9 

What  shall  be  said  to  them  ?  That  they  are 
in  a  minority?  That  they  are  in  a  wonderful 
minority  ?  That  they  are  in  a  minority  so  small 
as  to  be  practically  inappreciable  in  both  present 
and  historic  times?  In  most  things  and  with 
men  the  general  example  counts  for  much.  Fash- 
ion is  a  dictator.  Among  Romans  we  are  apt  to 
do  as  Romans  do.  In  dress,  in  furniture,  in  man- 
ners, in  language,  in  opinions  even,  we  are  prone 
to  go  with  the  tremendous  majorities.  What 
everybody  does  everybody  wants  to  do.  But  these 
prayerless  people  stand  against  a  world.  They 
say  No  where  almost  everybody  says  Yes.  Why 
is  it?  Is  prayer  one  of  the  labors  of  Hercules? 
Few  things  are  easier.  The  feeblest  and  simplest 
and  busiest  can  pray.  Neither  genius  nor  learn- 
ing nor  wealth  nor  goodness  is  needed,  only  sin- 
cerity. And  then,  while  prayer  cannot  possibly 
do  any  harm,  it  promises  to  do  a  w^orld  of  good, 
all  mankind  being  its  mouthpiece.  Under  such 
circumstances  prayerlessness  seems  inexcusable. 
The  presumptions  are  against  it;  the  "sweet  rea- 
sonableness" is  against  it;  an  imperial  Christian 
experience  is  against  it;  the  suffrages  of  humanity 
are  against  it.  In  neglecting  prayer  a  man  neg- 
lects to  use  in  his  own  behalf  what  all  the  world 
has  always  felt  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  forces 
open  to  man  for  accomplishing  his  ends,  and  very 


no  UNIVERSAL   BEUEFS. 

likely  does  it  for  a  reason  which  in  the  case  of 
other  great  forces  would  not  be  allowed  any 
weieht,  namely,  that  it  often  does  not  when  used 
bring  us  what  we  want.  The  use  of  other  forces, 
say  electricity  or  steam,  involves  danger.  It  may 
even  destroy  us.  But  the  force  we  call  prayer  is 
sure  to  do  no  harm  if  it  does  no  good.  The  Su- 
preme is  not  likely  to  be  angered  by  the  compli- 
ment of  a  devout  recognition  of  his  sovereignty 
and  power.  But  let  us  throw  aside  all  the  ijs  and 
declare  in  the  strength  of  the  great  consensus  that 
such  a  recognition  promises  vast  advantages  which 
no  man  can  afford  to  miss. 

But  it  is  not  the  prayerless  merely  that  need 
to  hearken  to  the  consensus.  Let  certain  praying 
people  coi'sider  their  ways.  They  pray  morning 
and  night  without  fail;  for  aught  I  know  they 
pray  seven  times  a  day;  but  their  prayers  do  not 
seem  to  them  instruments  for  the  accomplishment 
of  definite  purposes.  They  feel  that  praying  is  a 
thing  to  be  done,  that  it  is  a  necessary  part  of  the 
equipment  of  a  Christian  man,  that  it  belongs  to 
the  sacred  routine  which  for  some  good  reason  has 
been  appointed  them;  but  as  to  any  distinct  idea 
of  getting  by  their  asking  what  they  ask  for,  they 
are  quite  vacant  of  it.  And,  somehow,  their  na- 
ture does  not  abhor  the  vacuum.  They  are  quite 
easy  under  it.     They  do  not  expect  answers  to 


EFFICACIOUS    PRAYER.  Ill 

prayer  that  can  be  recognized  as  such.  They 
would  be  surprised  to  get  them.  Their  praying 
is  all  machine-work.  They  wound  themselves 
up  for  this  sort  of  work  some  years  ago,  and  they 
continue  to  run,  without  any  particular  interest  or 
aim  in  the  matter,  as  regular  as  a  machine  and 
alm^ost  as  purposeless. 

These  persons  should  wake  up.  Such  wooden 
praying  is  not  of  the  paying  sort.  It  is  not  adapt- 
ed to  get  specific  answers  because  it  does  not  thor- 
oughly mean  what  it  says.  If  these  praying- 
machines  would  take  to  themselves  soul,  and  would 
ask  God  for  favors  as  they  do  men — that  is,  with 
a  distinct  aim  and  effort  to  get  them  by  the  ask- 
ing— they  would  find  it  a  very  profitable  way  of 
expending  breath  and  time.  As  between  man  and 
man,  prayer  is  an  instrument  for  getting  what  we 
w^ant.  It  is  the  same  as  between  man  and  God. 
That  it  is  not  always  successful  in  gaining  its 
object  should  no  more  prevent  its  being  used  than 
like  failures  should  prevent  our  using  ploughs 
and  harrows.  Do  these  always  bring  a  crop? 
No;  but  they  look  and  work  in  that  direction; 
and  the  man  who  uses  them  faithfully  for  years 
finds  that  he  has  been  prospered  as  he  never 
would  have  been  if  he  had  trusted  to  the  sponta- 
neous products  of  the  soil. 


VI.  INFALLIBLE  ORACLES, 


Universal  Beliefs, 


Deity  with  his  own  right  hand  points  out  our  way. 

ARATUS. 


The  law  of  God  has  two  divisions — the  one  written,  the 
other  unwritten.  diog.  laert. 


Believing  all  things  written  in  the  law  and  the  prophets. 

ST.  PAUL. 


INFALLIBLE  ORACLES.  II5 


VI.  INFALLIBLE  ORACLES. 

The  Assyrians,  Babylonians,  Greeks,  Romans, 
and  other  ancient  peoples  who  had  no  sacred 
books  nevertheless  held  that  deity  had  sent  mes- 
sages to  men  by  haruspices,  priests,  sybils ;  by 
dreams,  omens,  supernatural  voices,  inspirations. 
And  the  original  message  was  always  supposed  to 
represent  perfectly  the  thought  of  the  deity  from 
whom  it  came.  It  might  be  marred  in  passing 
through  second  and  third  hands;  but  the  message 
at  first  hand,  whether  in  this  way, or  that,  whether 
by  responses  of  oracles  (as  at  Delphi  and  Dodona) 
or  by  the  teaching  of  priesthoods  supposed  to  be 
official  custodians  of  sacred  knowledge  and  mouth- 
pieces of  divinity,  whether  relating  to  fact  or  doc- 
trine or  practice,  was  accepted  as,  in  every  par- 
ticular, as  truthful  and  authoritative  as  the  divin- 
ity himself. 

Similar  to  these  are  the  views  generally  taken 
of  the  sacred  books  now  extant  in  the  world  by 
those  who  accept  them  as  sacred.  They  are 
thought  to  be  not  only  messages  from  the  super- 
natural, but  also  messages  that  are  as  infallible 
on  all  matters  of  which  they  affirm  as  the  super- 


Il6  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

natural  itself.  More  especially  is  this  thought  of 
the  original  documents. 

Max  Miiller  writes  of  the  Rig- Veda  as  follows: 
^'According  to  the  orthodox  views  of  Indian  the- 
ologians, not  a  single  line  of  the  Veda  was  the 
work  of  human  authors.  The  whole  Veda  is,  in 
some  way  or  other,  the  work  of  deity;  and  even 
those  who  received  the  revelation  or,  as  they  ex- 
plain it,  those  who  saw  it,  were  not  supposed  to 
be  ordinary  mortals,  but  beings  raised  above  the 
level  of  ordinary  humanity  and  less  liable  to  error, 
therefore,  in  the  reception  of  revealed  truth.  The 
views  entertained  of  revelation  by  the  orthodox 
theologians  of  India  are  far  more  minute  and 
elaborate  than  those  of  the  most  extreme  advo- 
cates of  verbal  inspiration  in  Europe.  The  hu- 
man element  is  driven  out  of  every  corner  and 
hiding-place;  and,  as  the  Veda  is  held  to  have 
existed  in  the  mind  of  the  deity  before  the  begin- 
ning of  time,  every  allusion  to  historical  events, 
of  which  there  are  not  a  few,  is  explained  away 
with  a  zeal  and  ingenuity  worthy  of  a  better 
cause.  If  the  laws  of  Mann,  or  any  other  work 
of  authority,  can  be  proved  on  any  point  to  be  at 
variance  with  a  single  passage  of  the  Veda,  their 
authority  is  at  once  overruled." 

The  Koran  is  held  by  Mohammedans  to  have 
descended  entire  from  heaven  on  the  "night  of 


INFALLIBLE   ORACLES.  II7 

power,"  and  to  have  been  faithfully  translated  by 
Mohammed  with  divine  help.  According  to  the 
Mormons,  the  "Book  of  Mormon"  was  divinely 
written  (every  word  of  it)  on  plates  of  gold,  and 
then  the  whole  literally  done  into  English  with 
absolutely  perfect  accuracy  by  Joseph  Smith, 
under  a  divine  inspiration. 

As  to  the  Tripitaka  of  the  Buddhists,  the 
Avesta  of  the  Persians,  the  Kings  of  Confucius, 
the  Tao-te-King  of  the  Taoists,  the  Sutras  of  the 
Gains,  the  Granth  of  the  Sikhs— they  are  all,  like 
the  Veda  and  the  Koran,  reverenced  by  their 
respective  votaries  as  pure  truth  without  the  least 
mixture  of  error.  Whatever  they  assert  is  to  be 
taken  without  question,  whatever  it  may  seem  to 
contradict.  Be  the  matter  great  or  small,  it  makes 
no  difference.  An  infallible  judge  has  spoken. 
Nothing  remains  to  be  said.  There  is  no  higher 
court  of  appeal. 

It  is  w^ell  known  that  the  Jews  as  a  nation 
have  always  held  to  a  plenary  inspiration  of  the 
Old  Testament.  In  their  view,  the  writings  of 
Moses  and  of  the  other  prophets,  as  they  came 
from  the  first  hands,  were  altogether  free  from 
mistakes.  Not  only  each  sentence,  but  each  in- 
dividual word— nay,  each  individual  letter — was  a 
sacred  thing  to  them.  They  largely  wore  Scrip- 
ture verses  as  amulets  on  their  foreheads  and  over 


Il8  UNIVERSAL    BELIEFS. 

their  hearts.  However  poorly  at  times  they  have 
practised  their  Bible,  their  theory  ir;  regard  to  it 
has  always  been  of  the  highest  sort.  Just  as  the 
political  motto  of  some  nations  is,  "The  king  can 
do  no  wrong,"  so  the  national  motto  of  Israel, 
from  time  out  of  mind,  has  been  that  the  Law 
and  the  Prophets  and  the  Psalms  are  the  king  of 
books,  and  a  king  that  never  errs.  ' '  How  firmly, ' ' 
says  Josephus,  "we  have  given  credit  to  those 
books  of  our  own  nation  is  evident  from  what  we 
do;  for  during  so  many  ages  as  have  already 
passed  no  one  has  been  so  bold  as  either  to  add 
anything  to  them,  to  take  anything  from  them, 
or  to  make  any  change  in  them." 

Such,  also,  has  been  the  view  taken  by  Chris- 
tians generally  of  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Tes- 
tament. In  every  age  of  its  history  the  Christian 
church  at  large  has  not  only  accepted  them  as 
containing  an  infallible  divine  message,  but  as 
being  such  a  message  in  its  original  documents. 
No  mistake  whatever  in  any  of  their  statements. 
Just  as  soon  as  one  has  found  out  what  INIoses  and 
Matthew,  Jeremiah  and  John,  and  the  other  Scrip- 
ture writers  actually  wrote,  the  sole  business  be- 
fore him  is  one  of  interpretation.  The  truth 
without  any  mixture  of  error  is  before  him.  He 
has  only  to  unlock  the  gates  of  speech  in  order  to 
find  it.     Such  has  alwavs  been  the  view  of  the 


INFALLIBLE   ORACLES.  II9 

great  body  of  Christians.  To  tliem  the  verdict  of 
genuine  Scripture  on  any  matter  whatever  has 
been  perfectly  decisive.  Whatever  they  could 
prove  by  it  was  proved  absolutely.  Nothing  re- 
mained to  be  said.  They  hushed  their  contro- 
versies. They  bowed  even  to  the  ground  before 
the  majesty  of  "Thus  saith  the  Lord."  They 
counted  the  man  a  heretic,  not  to  say  a  blas- 
phemer, who  could  come  near  saying,  "Moses 
spoke  here  only  the  myths  of  his  time,"  or,  "Mat- 
thew doubtless  was  misled  as  to  the  facts  in  this 
case  by  his  vocation  as  a  publican,"  or,  "Paul's 
reasonings  at  this  point  are  inconclusive."  Such 
language  has  sometimes  been  ventured  on  by  men 
calling  themselves  Christians,  especially  in  Ger- 
many; but  it  has  always  been  heard  with  a  shud- 
der by  the  great  Christian  communions. 

So  the  bulk  of  mankind  have  agreed  in  these 
two  things:  first,  that  the  w^orld  has  a  message 
from  the  supernatural;  and,  second,  that  this  mes- 
sage as  first  delivered  was  in  every  particular  as 
reliable  as  the  source  from  which  it  came. 

What  means  this  great  plebiscitum  ?  What 
means  this  universal  faith  in  an  infallible  mes- 
sage from  the  supernatural,  this  chain  of  such 
faiths  stretching  away  back  into  the  mists  of  his- 
tory and  even  the  adyta  of  primeval  tradition,  this 
chain  that  never  lessens  or  weakens  as  it  passes 


120  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

through  the  more  enlightened  times  and  lands? 
Have  we  not  here  the  instinctive  judgments  of 
mankind  as  to  what  sort  of  a  divine  message 
mankind  needs  and  is  likely  to  receive?  Have 
we  not  here,  perhaps,  a  divine  testimony  to  the 
fathers  of  the  race,  so  emphatic  and  so  agreeable 
to  what  one  would  expect  that  it  has  followed  the 
race  in  all  its  dispersions  and  generations  down  to 
the  present  time  with  unfailing  constancy? 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  universal  beliefs  are 
not  always  just.  But  they  are  very  apt  to  be — so 
apt  that  in  practical  life  they  are  always  accepted 
as  just,  in  the  absence  of  all  positive  evidence  to 
the  contrary.  This  point  I  have  fully  illustrated 
elsewhere.  Suffice  it  now  to  say  that  the  fact  or 
the  philosophy  that  is  witnessed  to  by  the  general 
voice  of  mankind  confessedly  deserves  great  re- 
spect with  logicians,  and  usually  gets  what  it 
deserves;  occupies  a  vantage-ground  from  which 
a  considerable  force  will  be  required  to  dislodge 
it — especially  if  the  great  world-voice  does  not 
waver,  but  rather  grows  firmer  as  it  issues  from 
the  lips  of  the  wiser  and  better  peoples,  and  es- 
pecially if  it  cannot  be  thought  suggested  by 
superficial  appearances,  like  the  notion  generally 
held  in  the  past  that  the  heavens  make  a  daily 
circuit  about  the  earth.  And  such  is  the  voice 
under  consideration.     Its  vast  chorus  of  testimony 


INFALLIBLE  ORACLES.  121 

to  a  divine  message  at  least  as  infallible  as  the 
source  from  which  it  comes  speaks  forth  a  weighty 
presumption.  Of  two  things  in  all  other  respects 
equal,  that  which  has  in  its  favor  the  suffrages  of 
mankind  at  large  would  be  universally  conceded 
to  have  greatly  the  advantage  of  its  fellow.  In 
the  present  case,  since  we  have  even  more  than 
the  lack  of  positive  evidence  that  the  wide  suf- 
frage comes  from  the  weak  and  perverse  in  human 
nature  (from  its  ignorance  and  depravity),  it  is  but 
fair  to  think  that  it  comes  from  the  better  ele- 
ments;  that  it  comes  from  the  pressure  of  the 
actual  fact  as  revealed,  or  as  shining  by  its  own 
light  in  the  universal,  though  sometimes  dim, 
sense  of  what  man  needs  to  receive  and  God  needs 
to  give. 

This  general  consent  of  the  world  as  to  the 
degree  of  inspiration  belonging  to  a  divine  mes- 
sage is  fortified,  so  far  as  our  Scriptures  are  con- 
cerned, by  another  consensus. 

The  general  voice  of  the  Christian  church,  of 
which  we  have  spoken,  is  entitled  to  great  weight. 
With  insignificant  exceptions,  Christians  have  al- 
ways held  that,  by  means  of  a  divine  influence, 
the  original  Scripture  documents  were  secured 
from  error  in  all  their  teachings  of  whatever  kind; 
so  that  their  verdict  on  any  matter  was  perfectly 
authoritative  and  final.     Has  an  undoubted  can- 


122  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

onical  passage  pronounced  upon  it?  Then  it  is 
settled  beyond  dispute.  Let  no  one  open  his 
mouth  further.  No  matter  how  trivial  the  sub- 
ject may  seem,  no  matter  what  the  topic,  whether 
fact  or  doctrine,  whether  sacred  or  secular,  wheth- 
er prose  or  poetry,  whether  chronology  or  history 
or  science  or  religion,  all  debate  is  cut  off.  All 
heads  bow  silently  to  the  judge  that  ends  the 
strife.  Let  no  one  presume  to  utter  or  think 
against  that  verdict,  distinguishing  between  great 
and  small,  important  and  unimportant,  religious 
and  secular.  "Such,"  says  Rawlinson,  "has 
been  the  teaching  of  the  church  of  Christ  from 
the  first." 

A  presumption  (is  it  not  a  great  deal  more?) 
that  the  original  Scriptures  were  accurate  in  even 
their  smallest  statements  is  given  by  the  fact  that 
a  multitude  of  minute  and  seemingly  least  im- 
portant Biblical  statements,  even  in  our  often 
translated  and  copied  Bible,  have  been  verified  by 
the  exploration  of  recent  times;  while  in  no  case 
has  any  undoubted  Biblical  statement  been  shown 
to  be  incorrect — whether  it  be  historical,  topo- 
graphical, ethnological,  ethnographical,  or  scien- 
tific ;  for,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  there  may  be 
very  small  scientific  matters. 

Perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  way,  as  it  cer- 
tainlv  is  the  most  economical  one  as  reofards  time 


'  INFALUBI.E   ORACLES.  1 23 

and  space,  of  substantiating  this  assertion  is  to 
cite  the  testimony  of  one  of  the  most  illustrious, 
learned,  and  conscientious  of  modern  scholars  as 
found  in  Rawlinson's  "Historical  Evidences." 
This  work  contains  the  following  statements : 
"My  own  studies,  which  have  lain  for  the  last 
eight  or  nine  years  almost  exclusively  in  the  field 
of  ancient  history,  have  convinced  me  more  and 
more  of  the  thorough  truthfulness  and  faithful 
accuracy  of  the  historical  Scriptures.  Circum- 
stances have  given  me  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  whole  course  of  recent  cuneiform  and  (to  some 
extent)  of  hieroglyph ical  discovery  ;  and  I  have 
been  continually  struck  with  the  removal  of  diffi- 
culties, the  accession  of  light,  the  multiplication 
of  minute  points  of  agreement  between  the  sacred 
and  profane,  resulting  from  the  advances  made  in 
deciphering  the  Assyrian,  Babylonian,  Persian, 
and  Egyptian  records. 

"There  is  an  argument  of  immense  compass 
dedu-cible  from  the  indirect  and  incidental  points 
of  aereement  between  the  Mosaic  records  and  the 
best  profane  authorities.  And  this  is  an  argument 
to  which  modern  research  is  perpetually  adding 
fresh  weight.  Above  all,  the  absence  of  any 
counter-evidence,  the  fact  that  each  accession  to 
our  knowledge  of  the  ancient  times,  whether  his- 
toric or  geographic  or  ethnic,  helps  to  remove 


124  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

difficulties  and  to  produce  a  perpetual  supply  of 
fresh  illustrations  of  the  IMosaic  narrative,  while 
fresh  difficulties  are  not  at  the  same  time  brought 
to  light,  all  tends  to  show  that  we  possess  in  the 
Pentateuch  not  only  the  most  authentic  account 
of  ancient  times  that  has  come  down  to  us,  but  a 
history  absolutely  and  in  every  respect  true. 

"It  is  not  possible  to  produce  from  authentic 
history  any  contradiction  of  this  or  any  other 
portion  of  the  Hebrew  records.  When  such  a 
contradiction  has  seemed  to  be  found  it  has  in- 
variably happened  that,  in  the  progress  of  his- 
torical inquiry,  the  author  from  whom  it  proceeds 
has  lost  credit  and  finally  come  to  be  regarded  as 
an  utterly  untrustworthy  authority. 

"  It  is  evident  that  the  entire  historical  frame- 
work in  which  the  gospel  is  set  is  real ;  that  the 
facts  of  the  civil  history,  small  and  great,  are 
true.  To  suppose  that  there  is  this  minute  his- 
torical accuracy  in  all  the  accessories  of  the  story 
and  that  the  story  itself  is  mythic  is  absurd. 

"A  comparison  of  its  secondary  or  incidental 
facts  with  the  civil  history  of  the  times  as  other- 
wise known  to  us  reveals  an  agreement  so  multi- 
tudinous and  so  minute  as  to  constitute,  in  the 
eyes  of  all  those  who  are  capable  of  weighing  his- 
torical evidence,  an  overwhelming  argument  in 
proof  of  the  authenticity  of  the  whole  story." 


infaluble:  oracles.  125 

Sucli  are  the  testimonies.  We  have  in  them 
the  fruit  of  years  of  scholarly  investigation  con- 
densed into  a  pemmican  of  honest  statement.  We 
may  safely  say  that  it  correctly  represents  the 
facts.  That  minute  accuracy,  in  even  the  most 
assailed  parts  of  the  Scriptures,  to  which  it  testi- 
fies, in  regard  to  all  the  numerous  points  of  the 
past  which  modern  researches  have  thus  far  been 
able  to  uncover,  is  sufficient  warrant  for  assuming 
their  accuracy  at  all  other  points.  If  Schliemann 
digs  up  an  old  helmet  at  Mycene  and,  on  cleaning 
it  at  many  of  the  least  conspicuous  points,  finds 
only  pure  gold,  is  he  not  warranted  in  thinking 
he  has  a  gold  helmet?  If  one  should  find  in 
ancient  Chaldcea  or  at  Travancore  a  chart  of  the 
heavens,  and,  on  testing  it  by  thousands  of  stars 
of  all  sizes,  taken  at  random  from  all  parts  of  the 
sky,  should  find  them  all  correctly  placed,  w^ould 
he  not  feel  entitled  to  assume  the  correctness  of 
the  chart  throughout?  It  would  be  folly  to  re- 
quire him  to  verify  by  actual  measurement  every 
single  stellar  position.  Not  a  star-chart  in  the 
world  has  been  verified  in  this  way.  And  yet  the 
Berlin  charts  are  built  on  confidently  in  every 
observatory  and  nautical  almanac  in  both  hemi- 
spheres. If  it  is  scientific  to  do  this,  why  is  it  not 
scientific  to  allow  a  like  broad  induction  of  facts 
to  convince  us  of  the  accuracy  of  the  entire  orig- 


126  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

inal  Scriptures  on  all  matters  of  which  they  speak, 
without  regard  to  the  science  of  magnitude  ? 

And,  then,  the  Scriptures  claim  entire  trust- 
worthiness for  themselves  — claim  it  after  the 
broadest  and  most  exacting  fashion. 

As  to  the  New  Testament.  Its  various  books 
were  written  by  the  immediate  disciples  of  Christ. 
This  fact  is  on  the  face  of  most  of  the  books  and 
has  the  support  of  uncounteracted  tradition.  To 
deny  it  is  practically  to  deny  that  we  can  know 
who  were  the  authors  of  any  ancient  books,  or 
even  of  very  modern  ones.  So  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  written  by  the  immediate  disciples  of 
Christ. 

Now  this  Book  testifies  that  Christ  commis- 
sioned his  immediate  disciples  to  become  the  reli- 
gious teachers  of  mankind;  that  he  promised  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  thoroughly  qualify  them  for  their 
work  ;  that  on  particular  occasions  (as  when 
brought  before  magistrates,  and  en  that  day  of 
Pentecost  when  they  preached  in  tongues  un- 
known to  themselves)  the  very  words  and  syntax 
of  their  message  were  divinely  supplied  to  them; 
that,  in  short,  they  were  so  furnished  for  their 
work  that  their  Master  could  say  to  them,  "He 
that  heareth  you  heareth  me,"  and,  "  It  is  not  ye 
that  speak,  but  the  Spirit  of  my  Father  that  speak- 
eth  in  you;"  and  so  that  Paul  could  say,  "We 


INFALLIBLE   ORACLES.  Icy 

speak  not  in  the  words  which  man's  wisdom 
teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth." 
While  making  such  representations,  the  sacred 
writers  give  no  vague  hint  whatever  that  they 
may  be  unreliable  to  some  extent  in  minor  mat- 
ters;  not  a  word,  even  the  slightest,  that  any 
discount  whatever  should  be  made  from  their  un- 
qualified teachings,  either  oral  or  written,  in  the 
exercise  of  their  ministry.  Under  these  circum- 
stances the  primitive  Christians  must  have  felt 
bound  to  accept,  without  exception,  whatever 
these  broadly-commissioned  teachers  gave  them 
as  from  the  Master,  especially  in  formal  writings 
desio-ned  to  be  a  text-book  of  relio^ion  to  all  future 
times.  If  anything  from  Christ's  immediate  dis- 
ciples was  ex  cathedra^  such  a  text-book  was.  To 
reject  a  large  part  of  it  under  color  of  a  vague  dis- 
tinction between  things  primary  and  secondary, 
things  more  and  less  important,  things  religious 
and  semi-religious  or  secular,  without  any  dis- 
tinct boundary-line  between  the  two,  would  have 
been  as  unnatural  as  unwarrantable  —  in  fact, 
would  logically  have  put  their  whole  Scripture 
under  suspicion  and  shadow  and  set  it  a- trembling 
like  an  aspen.  As  a  matter  of  history,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  church  has  never  received  the  New  Tes- 
tament after  such  a  fractional,  discounting,  and 
confusing  a  fashion.     As  far  back  as  church  opin- 


128  UXIVERSAI.    BELIEFS. 

ion  can  be  traced  a  plain  Scripture  on  any  point 
whatever,  great  or  small  in  seeming,  has  been 
held  absolutely  decisive.  It  has  had  always  the 
prerogative  of  the  last  word. 

As  to  the  Old  Testament.  Its  absolute  and 
entire  trustworthiness  has  sufficient  proof  in  the 
attitude  of  Christ  and  the  New  Testament  towards 
it.  Not  only  is  it  called  the  "  Holy  Scriptures," 
the  "Word  of  God,"  the  "Oracles  of  God;"  not 
only  are  its  writers  spoken  of  as  "holy  men  of 
God  who  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  while  no  hint  whatever  is  given  that  cer- 
tain parts  are  to  be  taken  ^^ ami graiw  salis^''^  and 
that  the  common  Jewish  opinion  in  regard  to  it 
needed  to  be  somewhat  lowered;  not  only  does  the 
New  Testament  do  this,  but  Paul  says  that  he 
believes  ^^  all  tJiings  wTitten  in  the  law  and  the 
prophets;"  while  the  Master  himself  declares  that 
"not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  the  law  (at  least  the  five 
books  of  Aloses)  shall  fail,"  and  that  "whosoever 
shall  break  one  of  these  least  commandments 
(facts  in  the  form  of  precepts),  and  shall  teach 
men  so,  shall  be  called  least  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven." 

Evidently  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament, 
as  well  as  their  Master,  in  quoting  from  the  Old 
Testament,  regarded  a  matter  as  settled  \\\\^\\  they 
could  bring  to  bear  on  it  a  clear  passage  from  their 


IXFALLIELE   ORACLES.  129 

Bible — this  without  regard  to  topic  or  seeming 
magnitude.  They  did  not  think  it  necessary  to 
measure  carefully  its  true  dimensions,  or  esti- 
mate its  weight  and  quality  to  remote  decimals, 
before  accepting  the  Bible  deliverance  concern- 
ing it. 

If  the  sacred  writers  had  only  a  partial  inspi- 
ration, were  open  to  mistake  in  a  part  of  their 
deliverances,  they  were  bound  in  all  honesty  to 
say  as  much  and  to  put  their  readers  on  their 
guard.  They  should  have  said  for  substance, 
*'We  are  inspired  and  secured  from  error  as  to 
main  things,  but  as  to  other  matters  we  are  like 
other  people."  But,  instead  of  this,  their  claim 
to  be  received  as  bringing  a  divine  message  is  en- 
tirely unqualified.  It  is  couched  in  the  broadest 
and  most  emphatic  terms.  Not  a  whisper,  not  a 
gesture,  not  a  look  even,  of  warning  comes  to  us 
from  any  one  of  the  sacred  writers  either  in  re- 
gard to  himself  or  to  his  brethren  of  the  canon ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  such  language  and  tone  are 
used  as  must  have  been  understood  to  indorse  com- 
pletely the  current  opinion  of  the  time,  and  indeed 
of  all  times,  as  to  sacred  books.  If  a  part  of  the 
ground  we  have  to  travel  over  is  morass  and  lia- 
ble to  let  us  through  at  every  step,  though  there 
are  no  surface  indications  of  the  fact,  let  the  au- 
thorities at  least  set  up  by  the  road  some  notifica- 

rni vernal  Belief*.  Q 


130  UNIVERSAIv   BELIEFS. 

tion  of  danger,  that  we  may  be  on  the  alert.  I^et 
them  put  out  somewhere  a  red  light. 

This  is  what  Paul  is  supposed  by  some  to  have 
done.  In  one  or  two  instances  he  is  thought  to 
express  some  hesitation  as  to  whether,  in  regard 
to  certain  matters,  he  has  "the  mind  of  the  Spir- 
it." But  his  scrupulousness  as  to  these  specified 
matters  assures  us  that  he  felt  sure  as  to  the  divine 
authority  of  all  his  other  statements,  which  re- 
ceived no  qualification  whatever:  assures  us  that 
if  any  of  them  had  been  open  to  doubt  he  would 
have  given  fair  warning:  in  fact,  assures  us  that 
the  other  sacred  writers,  under  similar  circum- 
stances, would  have  done  as  much.  The  fact  that 
they  suggest  no  doubt  whatever  is  proof  that  they 
entertained  none. 

So  much  as  to  what  the  Scriptures  claim  for 
themselves.  Now  let  us  see  what  consequences 
are  involved  in  adopting  the  alternative  theory  of 
inspiration,  viz.,  that  the  original  Scriptures  were 
infallible  only  in  main  things. 

This  theory  seems  to  open  the  door  for  nullify- 
ing a  large  part  of  the  Bible.  Main  things  in  a 
book,  as  well  as  in  everything  else,  are  always  in 
a  minority,  a  very  small  minority.  The  details 
and  circumstantials  of  a  picture  always  occupy 
the  most  space,  by  far  the  most.  Besides,  it  is  no 
easy  matter  to  decide  where  "main"  things  end 


INFALLIBLE   ORACLES.  131 

and  the  secondary  and  subordinate  begin.  They 
shade  away  into  each  other  as  day  does  into  night. 
Different  men  would  draw  the  dividing  line  very 
differently.  There  are  those  who  regard  the  Deity 
of  Christ,  his  atonement,  his  mediation,  regenera- 
tion, a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments, 
as  anything  but  essential  to  a  scheme  of  reasona- 
ble religion.  And,  then,  do  not  things  seemingly 
very  small  often  turn  out  to  have  very  important 
connections — a  little  pivot  proving  essential  to  the 
integrity  and  working  of  a  great  engine  ?  Ser- 
mons, and  even  books,  can  be  written  on  the  im- 
portance of  little  things.  Whether  or  not  the 
cackling  of  geese  once  saved  Rome,  it  is  proverbial 
that  the  w^eight  of  a  feather  sometimes  decides  a 
hesitating  balance  or  battle,  and  that  a  last  straw 
may  break  a  camel's  back.  Such  facts  trouble  us 
when  we  are  trying  to  distinguish  between  the 
important  and  unimportant,  the  more  important 
and  the  less,  in  Scripture.  It  looks  small ;  but 
then  may  it  not  be  the  small  rudder  that  steers 
some  "tall  admiral,"  and  so  a  whole  squadron  of 
dependent  ships;  or  a  small  seed  which  in  time 
will  wave  harvests  over  half  a  continent?  So  a 
cloud  of  uncertainty  settles  down  on  by  far  the 
larger  part  of  the  Bible.  We  cannot  accept  a  sin- 
gle verse  as  infallible  until  we  have  proved  it  to 
be  highly  important;  and  then  what  room  for  dif- 


132  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

ferent  views  as  to  what  is  important!  Almost  ev- 
erywhere the  ground  under  our  feet  seems  to  be 
on  a  tremble.  What  our  fathers  thought  to  be  a 
rock  turns  out  to  be  a  bog.  Can  it  be  that  God 
has  given  us  such  a  revelation  ? 

If  the  contemporaries  of  the  original  Scripture 
documents  had  found  them  unreliable  in  regard 
to  the  larger  part  of  their  statements,  even  though 
these  statements  were  of  the  circumstantial  and 
secondary  sort,  would  they  not  have  been  reason- 
ably stumbled  as  to  the  rest?  Could  they  well 
have  been  blamed  for  withholding  confidence 
from  the  entire  thing?  It  would  have  been  the 
scientific  thing  to  do.  In  similar  circumstances 
we  moderns  would  feel  compelled  by  universally 
accepted  laws  of  evidence  to  do  it. 

But  the  theory  that  the  original  Bible  was  in- 
fallible only  in  main  things  contradicts  the  theory 
on  which  Biblical  scholars  proceed  in  dealing 
with  the  text  of  Scripture.  The  whole  effort  of 
textual  critics  is  to  find  out  what  the  autographs 
were.  This  is  considered  immensely  important, 
the  great  dcsidcratitm^  deserving  of  almost  unlim- 
ited pains.  And  indeed  so  say  all  devout  scholars 
and  the  intelligent  Christian  public,  for  they  feel 
that  the  nearer  they  get  to  the  autographs  the 
nearer  they  get  to  the  exact  truth.  But  all  par- 
tics  are  mistaken  if  only  "the  more  important" 


INFALLIBLE   ORACLES.  133 

Bible  statements  have  a  divine  warrant.  In  that 
case  by  far  the  larger  part,  say  ninety-nine  hun- 
dredths of  the  whole  Scripture,  is  not  one  whit 
more  trustworthy  than  the  copies  made  from  them ; 
indeed  less  so,  as  being  the  product  of  a  less  criti- 
cal and  enlightened  age.  What  is  the  use  of 
scholars  worrying  themselves  about  the  genuine- 
ness of  secondary  matters  when,  even  if  proved 
genuine,  they  would  be  of  no  account  as  Scrip- 
ture ?  The  latest  variations  are  at  least  fully  as 
likely  to  be  correct  as  the  originals.  As  a  whole 
the  Bible  has  sunk  to  the  level  of  other  books; 
Samson  and  Milo  are  as  other  men.  So  far  as 
getting  at  the  truth  is  concerned,  the  critics  have 
accomplished  just  nothing  by  all  their  labors. 
They  have  wasted  any  amount  of  time,  talent, 
toil.  Their  rummagings  in  old  monasteries,  their 
disinterment  of  codices,  cursive  and  uncial,  their 
collations  and  recensions  innumerable,  their  sci- 
ence of  textual  criticism  and  cognates,  elaborated 
with  infinite  labor  in  closets  and  convocations  and 
revision  committees,  amount  to  nothing  that  the 
general  Christian  public  values  one  jot.  Such  a 
public  has  little  patience  with  this  much  ado 
about  nothing.  Why  do  they  spend  money  for 
that  which  is  not  bread?  "The  game  is  not 
worth  the  candle."  Their  true  course  would  be 
first  to  find  (if  that  is  possible)  what  are  the  main 


134  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

or  more  important  passages  in  our  present  Bibles, 
and  then  confine  inquiries  to  the  question  of  their 
eenuineness.  As  these,  from  the  nature  of  the 
case,  can  be  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  whole, 
an  immense  saving  of  time  and  work  would  be 
eflfected. 

But  some  prefer  to  speak  of  inspiration  as  be- 
longing only  to  the  "  moral  and  religious"  parts 
of  the  Bible.  We  complain  of  the  vagueness  of 
such  language.  What  is  meant  by  the  words 
*' moral  and  religious"?  Plainly,  not  everything 
that  can  be  made  to  yield  moral  and  religious  les- 
sons, for  that  would  include  not  only  everything 
found  in  the  Bible,  but  also  everything  in  every 
other  book  and  in  the  whole  w^orld  of  events. 
From  stars  to  stones,  from  the  motions  of  armies 
to  those  of  atoms,  religion  may  be  argued  into  or 
away  from  them  all.  Are  duties,  together  with 
their  underlying  doctrines,  meant?  In  that  case 
it  is  plain  that  there  is  a  vast  amount  of  matter  in 
the  Bible  that  cannot  be  clearly  brought  under 
either  of  these  heads.  Duties  depend  largely  on 
facts  and  circumstances;  if  the  latter  are  unrelia- 
ble, the  former  are  so  also  to  the  same  extent. 
Also,  beyond  a  certain  point  it  becomes  doubtful 
what  doctrines  underlie  given  duties.  A  field  for 
endless  dispute  opens.  The  entire  Bible  becomes 
debatable  ground,  a  sort  of  Terra  del  Fuego  of 


INFALLIBLE   ORACLES.  135 

fogs  and  clouds  and  desperate  uninhabitableness 
the  whole  miserable  year  round. 

But  what  do  they  really  have  in  their  thought, 
these  men  who  speak  of  inspiration  as  belonging 
solely  to   the  moral  and  religious  things  of  the 
Bible?     They  certainly  do  not  mean  the  whole 
Bible;  they  mean  limitation.     And  wx  have  only 
to  listen  to  them  a  little  to  see  that  they  mean  to 
exclude   from  the   area  of  infallible   inspiration 
matters  of  historic  detail,  of  manners  and  customs, 
of  arts,  sciences,  and  chronology;  in  general  and 
vaguely,  all  matters  of  the  "less  important"  sort 
that  fill  up  the  outlines  of  Scripture,  that  make 
the  flesh  and  blood  and  bloom  that  cover  its  skel- 
eton and  give  it  verisimilitude.     But  it  is  not  alto- 
gether easy  to  tell  when  one  comes  to  the  skele- 
ton.    And  certainly  what  is  outside  of  it  would, 
in  the  view  of  most  people,  include  the  greater 
.part  of  the  Bible,  especially  of  the  Old  Testament; 
and  rightly,  for  it  is  impossible  to  prove  clearly,  on 
purely  rational  grounds  (to  w^iich,  of  course,  we 
must  be  confined),  that  most  of  the  Bible  state- 
ments have   any  closer   connection  with  morals 
and  religion  than  have  those  in  our  common  his- 
tories, or  those  events  in  our  daily  lives  which 
yield  moral  and  religious  lessons  to  so  few.     A 
few  devout  and  ingenious  minds  will  smite  water 
out  of  rock  and  command  the  very  stones  into 


136  UNIVERSAL    BELIEFS. 

bread ;  but  to  most  people  they  will  remain  mere 
stones. 

So  an  open  door  is  left  for  a  man  to  exclude 
from  the  inspired  matter  of  the  Bible  whatever  he 
wishes.  To  some,  God  and  religion  appear  in 
everything;  to  others,  they  appear  in  almost  noth- 
ing. The  great  majority  are  slow  to  perceive  the 
spiritual  and  religious  in  what  passes  under  their 
observation.  A  few  see  sermons  in  stones;  but 
the  most  see  stones  in  sermons.  Who  does  not 
know  that  God  and  religion  are  apt  to  remain 
unsuggested  to  most  men  even  by  his  grandest 
works  and  most  signal  providences?  Such  per- 
sons would  find  in  the  Bible  a  minimum  of  the 
moral  and  religious  and  a  maximum  of  the  other 
sort. 

Further,  it  seems  clear  that  the  theory  that 
the  original  Bible  was  infallible  only  in  main 
things,  or,  if  you  please,  in  things  moral  and  re- 
ligious, would,  if  fairly  understood  and  adopted  by 
the  people  at  large,  completely  destroy  the  authori- 
ty of  the  Scriptures  among  them.  Suppose  a  min- 
ister should  stand  up  in  his  pulpit,  and  holding  up 
a  Bible  should  say  to  his  congregation,  "This 
book  originally  contained  here  and  there,  at  great 
intervals,  something  that  was  divine  and  not  open 
to  mistake;  but  men  have  never  been  able  to  say 
with  any  confidence,  save  in  a  few  instances,  just 


INFALLIBLE  ORACLES.  137 

where  these  green  spots  are;  and  as  for  the  rest 
(by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  whole),  why,  it  is  as 
purely  human  and  fallible  as  any  common  book. 
Indeed,  this  book  has  a  special  drawback  in  being 
the  product  of  comparatively  very  uncritical  and 
unenlightened  times."  I  say  suppose  our  clergy 
should  talk  after  this  fashion  to  their  people. 
What  would  come  of  it  ?  Doubtless  at  first  a  wide 
opening  of  the  eyes.  "We  have  heard  strange 
things  to-day,  things  which  neither  we  nor  our 
fathers  have  known.  But  one  thing  is  clear,  if 
these  ministers  are  right  they  no  longer  have  a 
vocation.  A  clear  divine  warrant  for  their  func- 
tion and  support  can  no  longer  be  pleaded.  We 
can  dispense  with  them.  That  will  be  a  very 
considerable  and  acceptable  economy.  But  are 
these  views  correct?"  Just  as  soon  as  the  people 
conclude  to  say  Yes,  how  much  weight  will  the 
Bible  have  with  them  ?  It  will  no  longer  be  to 
them  a  Bible  at  all.  Its  prestige  is  all  gone.  The 
sceptre  has  fallen  from  its  hand.  It  is  wholly 
without  authority — its  promises  a  mirage,  its  pen- 
alties a  brtiiuvi  fiilmen.  It  may  continue  to  inter- 
est as  an  heirloom,  a  piece  of  antiquity,  a  literary 
curiosity,  a  companion  volume  to  the  books  of 
Confucius  and  Zoroaster,  a  book  with  a  somewhat 
famous  history;  but  as  an  authoritative  rule  of 
faith  and  practice  it  will  have  no  force  whatever. 


138  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

The  only  sceptre  left  in  the  hand  of  Christ  will  be 
a  mocking  reed.  Such  a  book  could  not  answer 
the  purpose  of  a  divine  message.  It  is  not  such  a 
revelation  as  the  world  needs.  It  is  incredible 
that  God  has  given  such  a  thing  to  the  world  un- 
der a  warrant  of  "signs  and  wonders."  It  would 
not  be  worth  the  giving. 

To  the  doctrine  of  the  inerrancy  of  the  original 
Scriptures  the  following  objections  may  be  made: 

I.  Many  trivialities,  puerilities,  and  even  some 
indecencies  are  found  in  all  copies  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  so  presumably  belonged  to  the  origi- 
nals: can  it  be  that  the  inspiration  which  did  not 
secure  against  such  things  secured  against  error 
in  even  the  smallest  matters? 

We  admit  that  there  are  things  in  the  Bible 
that  seem^  at  first  view,  to  be  all  these — things  the 
use  of  which  we  do  not  see,  and  even  things  which 
propriety,  according  to  present  usage,  forbids  to 
be  publicly  read.  But  this  is  only  what  we  ob- 
serve in  nature.  Nature  abounds  in  things  that 
seem  trivial,  and  in  some  that  will  not  bear  pro- 
miscuous exhibition.  Every  natural  fact  has  a 
setting  of  small  particulars,  and  must  be  given  in 
more  or  less  of  its  natural  setting  in  order  to  veri- 
similitude. Also,  things  seemingly  very  trifling 
often  turn  out  to  be  pivotal,  like  some  of  the  small 
and  obscure  but  yet  essential  parts  of  a  watch. 


INFALLIBLE   ORACLES.  139 

Also,  times  and  countries  differ  much  in  their 
ideas  of  what  is  indelicate;  and  the  expressions  in 
the  Bible  which  are  complained  of  are  no  worse 
than  the  facts,  and  are  really  no  more  suggestive 
of  evil  than  the  words  "male  and  female,"  "for- 
nication," "adultery,"  and  many  other  such 
words  in  current  and  unblamed  use  among  us,  and 
w^hich  are  indispensable  in  the  fight  against  vice 
and  crime.  It  is  quite  credible  that  certain  physi- 
ological facts  which  the  young  miLst  learn  sooner 
or  later  had  better  be  first  learned  in  sacred  con- 
nections and  as  set  amid  the  solemn  sanctions  and 
menaces  of  religion. 

2.  What  is  the  use  of  having  the  original 
Scriptures  more  secured  from  error  than  the  cop- 
ies ?  The  copies  are  to  a  certain  extent  fallible. 
This  implies  fallibility  to  a  like  extent  in  the 
originals;  for  what  is  the  use  of  having  them  more 
accurate  ? 

We  answer:  It  is  the  use  of  having  a  perfectly 
solid  foundation  for  a  great  edifice;  of  having  a 
perfectly  pure  fountain  to  supply  the  successive 
reservoirs  and  pipes  of  a  great  city;  of  having  a 
perfect  standard  of  weights  or  measures  to  which 
to  refer  for  verification;  of  having  a  final  court  of 
appeals  able  to  revise  the  proceedings  of  all  other 
courts,  and  decide  cases  righteously  as  well  as 
finally. 


140  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

We  answer:  It  is  the  use  of  having  a  Bible 
more  reliable  than  merely  human  commentaries 
on  it  or  than  the  intelligent  faculties  of  the  read- 
ers. If  there  is  no  use  in  having  the  original 
documents  less  fallible  than  the  copies,  then,  on 
the  same  principle,  there  is  no  use  in  having  the 
copies  less  fallible  than  are  its  uninspired  read- 
ers and  interpreters.  As  these  are  all  fallible 
according  to  our  Protestant  view,  the  Bible  at 
once  sinks  to  the  level  of  a  fallible  human  pro- 
duction. 

We  answer :  It  is  the  use  of  having  a  Bible 
mainly  secure  from  error,  instead  of  a  Bible 
mainly  open  to  error;  the  use  of  having  a  Bible 
whose  deliverances  are  unreliable  only  in  an  in- 
finitesimal part  of  the  whole,  and  that  part  prov- 
identially indicated  to  us  and  guaranteed  to  be 
inconsequential,  instead  of  one  whose  deliverances 
are  unreliable  in  almost  every  part  and  on  almost 
every  point. 

If  only  the  copies  are  liable  to  error,  then  we 
have  to  discount  from  the  infallibility  of  the  book 
only  at  the  points  where  the  copies  so  differ  among 
themselves  as  to  make  it  hard  to  choose  between 
them;  but  if  the  original  Scriptures  were  them- 
selves liable  to  error  in  all  secondary  matters,  then 
(as  such  matters  make  up  by  far  the  greater  part 
of  every  book,  and  it  is  no  easy  matter  after  a  cer- 


INFALUBLE  ORACLES.  141 

tain  point  to  distinguish  between  things  primary 
and  secondary)  the  greater  part  of  the  Bible  passes 
under  a  cloud. 

This,  then,  seems  the  proper  doctrine.  The 
original  Scriptures,  as  they  came  fresh  from  the 
hands  of  the  sacred  penmen,  were  infallible  in 
all  their  statements  of  whatever  sort.  One  asks 
whether  this  doctrine  implies  a  strictly  verbal  in- 
spiration, a  divine  giving  of  each  particular  word 
with  its  collocation.  Not  necessarily.  If  in  any 
case  there  is  only  one  best  way  of  saying  what 
needs  to  be  said,  then  that  way  must  be  secured 
by  a  strictly  verbal  inspiration.  But  wherever 
there  are  several  such  ways,  ways  equally  good  of 
saying  the  same  thing  (and  this,  it  would  seem, 
must  often  happen),  it  is  enough  if  the  sacred 
writer  is  kept  to  any  one  of  these  ways.  Within 
their  range  he  is  at  liberty  to  choose  his  own 
words  and  his  own  syntax.  He  is  not  limited  to 
specific  individuals,  only  to  a  specific  class.  That 
is,  some  divine  direction  as  to  words  must  always 
exist,  but  in  many  cases  this  need  not  extend  to 
the  dictation  of  individual  words  with  their  collo- 
cation. As  a  traveller  may  have  the  choice  of 
several  roads  to  a  city  instead  of  being  shut  up  to 
a  single  one;  as  a  planet  may  vary  its  orbit  con- 
siderably between  fixed  terms,  instead  of  always 
traversing  exactly  the  same  line ;  as  a  prisoner 


142  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

may  have  the  range  of  an  entire  house  or  city  or 
province,  instead  of  being  confined  to  a  single 
cell,  so  the  sacred  writers  had  a  certain  range  of 
literary  expression  within  which  they  could  not 
go  amiss  or  fall  short  of  the  best,  instead  of  hav- 
ing their  feet  fast  in  the  stocks  of  a  single  for- 
mula. They  were  not  like  the  king  around  whom 
a  Roman  ambassador  drew  closely  a  circle  which 
must  not  be  crossed  till  an  answer  had  been  given, 
but  rather  like  that  king  as  he  would  have  been 
if  that  circle  had  followed  the  whole  round  of  the 
city  walls. 

Oitr  present  Scriptures  are^  practically^  faithful 
copies  of  the  originals. 

In  by  far  the  greatei  part  of  the  Scripture 
text  the  copies  agree  with  one  another.  This 
larger  part  is  therefore  like  the  originals.  So 
we  judge  in  the  case  of  all  other  ancient  books. 
What  all  the  copies  of  Herodotus  conspire  in  say- 
ing, Herodotus  himself  said. 

At  points  where  the  copies  disagree  with  one 
another  textual  criticism  can,  in  a  great  number 
of  cases,  determine  what  was  the  original  text 
beyond  all  reasonable  doubt.  This  is  a  modest 
statement.  No  doubt  extravagant  claims  have 
often  been  made  as  to  what  the  science  of  textual 
criticism  can  do.  "Never  such  a  detective!  It 
can  hunt  down  a  roeue  of  an  error  throu^rh  all  the 


INFAI.I.IBI.E   ORACLES.  143 

centuries  and  find  it  under  all  disguises."  But, 
without  going  such  lengths,  without  conceding 
omniscience  or  infallibility  to  this  or  any  other 
class  of  scientists,  we  are  bound  to  allow  that 
sound  principles  exist  which  enable  scholars  in  a 
multitude  of  cases  satisfactorily  to  determine, 
among  rival  readings,  that  which  is  genuine.  So 
we  may  make  a  large  addition  to  the  likeness  be- 
tween our  present  Bible  and  the  original  docu- 
ments. 

As  to  the  residuum  after  the  resources  of  criti- 
cism for  determining  the  genuine  have  been  ex- 
hausted, we  find  it  to  be  exceedingly  small,  largely 
inconsequential  to  all  appearance,  actually  (as  all 
Christian  scholars  agree)  bringing  into  doubt  no 
single  item  of  doctrine  or  duty,  and  fully  account- 
ed for  without  supposing  in  our  present  Bibles  any 
whit  of  abatement  from  the  authority  and  useful- 
ness of  the  original  Scriptures. 

For,  to  preserve  this  authority  and  usefulness, 
it  is  not  necessary  that  every  word  or  even  every 
construction  of  the  original  be  preserved.  In 
many  cases  there  are  several  equally  good  ways 
of  saying  the  same  thing.  An  author  is  often  at 
a  loss  which  to  choose  among  the  different  modes 
of  expression  that  occur  to  him.  He  cannot  see 
but  that  one  is  just  as  clear  and  forcible  as  anoth- 
er.     And  if  his  name  is  Thomas  Chalmers,  he 


144  UNIVERSAL   BELIEP^S. 

may  end  his  hesitation  by  using  them  all.  Sev- 
enteen reproductions  of  the  same  idea  have  been 
counted  in  one  of  his  paragraphs,  each  differing 
from  every  other  in  language,  and  all  just,  forci- 
ble, and  brilliant.  Just  as  the  same  person  may 
appear  to  equal  advantage  in  several  different 
dresses,  so  a  thought  may  not  suffer  in  the  least 
from  having  one  form  of  expression  exchanged  for 
another.  So  Jesus  and  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  evidently  thought;  for  in  their  quota- 
tions from  the  Old  Testament  they  are  not  always 
careful  to  use  the  exact  words  of  even  the  Septua- 
gint.  They  content  themselves  with  giving  what 
they  regard  as  equivalent  expressions.  So  the 
Decalogue  as  given  in  Deuteronomy  differs  ver- 
bally somewhat  from  that  given  in  Exodus.  The 
sense  is  the  same ;  the  dress  varies.  Evidently 
the  sacred  writers  themselves  were  not  in  bond- 
age to  the  letter.  They  certainly  thought  that  in 
some  cases  there  were  two  or  more  equally  good 
ways  of  saying  the  same  thing;  even  as  the  same 
pure  water  may  come  to  us  in  vessels  of  many 
shapes  and  materials.  If  this  is  so,  we  can  fully 
account  for  a  considerable  part  of  the  residual  pas- 
sages just  spoken  of  without  supposing  that  the 
Bible  has  suffered  in  the  sliehtest  from  our  ina- 
bility  to  reproduce  exactly  the  originals.  The 
substitutes  may  be  just  as  good  as  the  primaries 


INFALLIBLE   ORACLES.  145 

for  all  Scriptural  purposes.  Just  as  the  substitute 
whom  a  man  sends  into  the  army  may  do  quite  as 
good  service  as  himself,  and  the  army  be  none  the 
worse  for  the  exchange. 

But  the  residuum  does  not  consist  entirely  of 
passages  giving  the  same  thought  under  different 
forms.  Some  give  different  senses.  But  can  it 
be  that  it  may  be  of  no  earthly  consequence  which 
of  these  various  senses  is  taken  as  the  original  ? 
Even  so.  All  the  facts  of  the  original,  as  well  as 
all  its  words,  may  not  need  to  be  preserved  from 
mistake  and  doubt  in  order  to  its  being  preserved 
from  damage.  Many  facts  may  be  stated  merely 
as  the  actual  dress  and  circumstantials  of  other 
facts,  as  the  flesh  and  blood  required  to  make  the 
skeleton  of  truth  lifelike  and  presentable,  as  the 
filling-in  of  the  outlines  of  the  picture  for  the  pur- 
pose of  naturalness  and  verisimilitude.  For  this 
purpose  other  facts  of  a  similar  order  might  serve 
equally  well.  For  example,  968  years  as  the  age 
of  Methuselah  might  do  as  well  as  969  years.  It 
is  true  that,  for  reasons  already  stated,  it  would 
be  a  hard  matter  for  us  to  draw  the  line  between 
important  and  unimportant  variations;  but  that 
there  may  be  unimportant  ones  is  plain,  and  what 
they  are  w^ould  be  determined  by  w^hat  God  allows 
to  take  place.  We  do  not  have  to  draw  the  line. 
He  draws  it  for  us. 

Tiiiversal  Eelie'p.  JO 


146  UNIVERSAI.   BEUEFS. 

Besides  facts  which  merely  serve  to  give  veri- 
similitude, and  which  may  be  exchanged  without 
loss  for  others  ser\dng  that  purpose  equally  well, 
there  are  others  of  which  as  much  can  be  said. 
Just  as  a  fact  may  be  useful  to  a  person  at  one 
time  and  not  at  another,  so  a  fact  may  be  useful 
to  one  age  of  the  world  and  not  to  another  age. 
It  is  outgrown.  It  is  superannuated.  From  lapse 
of  time  and  change  of  circumstances  the  use  has 
fallen  out  of  it.  Or,  if  not  so,  its  place  has  be- 
come well  supplied  by  something  else.  Why  may 
it  not  be  so  with  some  Scripture  passages?  For 
example,  some  passages  relating  to  some  points  in 
the  superseded  Mosaic  economy.  If  we  find  it 
impossible  to  determine  satisfactorily  the  original 
sense  of  such  a  passage,  why  may  we  not  suppose 
that,  though  once  of  use  to  be  known,  it  is  so  no 
longer?  It  has  had  its  day,  or  sufficient  substi- 
tutes exist  in  other  parts  of  Scripture.  It  is  easy 
to  see  that  no  damage  whatever  might  come  to  us 
from  not  being  able  to  settle  a  few  points  like 
these.  If  we  had  to  find  them  out  for  ourselves 
we  should  be  in  straits.  But  the  providence  of 
God  steps  in  to  help  us.  He  marks  for  us  the 
passages  whose  original  sense  it  will  do  us  no 
harm  to  be  without.  What  he  allows  to  be- 
come indeterminate  through  various  readings,  or 
whatever  cause,  he  thereby  certifies  to  be  unim- 


INFALLIBLE  ORACLES.  147 

portant  for  iis^  whatever  it  may  have  been  for 
other  times. 

This,  then,  is  our  theory.  Words  and  syn- 
taxes in  Scripture,  as  elsewhere,  may  vary  to  a 
certain  extent  without  damage  to  the  sense. 
Without  damage,  also,  the  sense  itself  may  vary 
somewhat.  But  in  no  case  has  the  varying  been 
suffered  to  go  beyond  this  harmless  extent  without 
detection.  What  this  extent  is  is  shown  by  those 
passages  in  regard  to  which  there  remains  a  rea- 
sonable doubt  of  their  genuineness  after  the  re- 
sources of  criticism  have  been  exhausted  upon 
them.  Providence  does  for  us  what  we  could  not 
do  for  ourselves.  It  becomes  an  omniscient  de- 
tective. It  hunts  down  for  us  both  the  words  and 
the  senses  which  can  safely  vary,  puts  its  sign- 
manual  upon  them,  and  then  says,  "This  is  what 
you  do  not  need  to  know,  at  least  for  the  present. '^ 
So  we  hold  that,  for  all  practical  purposes,  the 
present  Bible  is  a  faithful  transcript  of  the  orig- 
inal documents.  After  doing  our  best  to  find  the 
words  and  thoughts  of  a  passage  as  they  stood  in 
the  autographs,  and  doing  it  unsuccessfully,  we 
say  to  ourselves  reasonably,  "It  is  not  of  any 
consequence,  at  least  for  the  present,  that  we 
should  know.  If  it  were,  the  Lord  would  not 
have  suffered  the  text  to  fall  into  this  helpless 
doubt." 


148  UNIVERSAI.  BELIEFS. 

This  view  is  confirmed  by  the  manner  in 
which  Christ  and  his  apostles  treated  the  Bible  of 
their  time.  This  was  a  translation  and  a  copy — 
a  copy  of  copies,  the  last  survivor  of  many  gen- 
erations of  copies,  the  last  link  in  a  long  chain 
that  had  come  down  through  the  glooms  and 
tossings  of  many  troublous  centuries.  But  Christ 
treated  it  as  if  it  were  an  autograph.  Not  a  hint 
but  that  it  possessed  all  the  reliability  and  author- 
ity of  the  primitive  parchments.  Not  one  word 
about  a  harmful  uncertainty  in  a  text  that  had 
passed  through  so  many  hands.  What  explana- 
tion of  this  so  good  as  that  no  such  harmful  un- 
certainty existed  ?  He  had  no  need  to  caution. 
For  all  practical  purposes  the  copy  was  as  good 
as  the  original  while  yet  wet  under  the  writers' 
hands  would  have  been.  Divine  Providence  had 
so  watched  over  the  book  that,  though  in  the 
lapse  of  ages  various  changes  in  the  text  had 
taken  place,  not  one  of  these  changes  was  of  the 
sort  to  vitiate  in  the  slightest  the  book  as  a  reli- 
gious guide.  So  Christ,  in  speaking  of  the  Sep- 
tuagint  Bible  of  his  day,  had  no  need  to  distin- 
guish between  it  and  the  original  autographs. 
He  did  not  so  distinguish.  He  treated  both  as 
being  one  and  the  same  thing.  He  took  it  for 
granted  that  the  people  about  him  were  doing  the 
same.     They  were.     Whatever  rio^hts  belonged  to 


INFAI.I.IBLE   ORACLES.  149 

the  first  king  they  allowed  to  his  lineal  successor 
of  their  own  day. 

Of  late  years  it  has  been  given  out  that  the 
progress  of  Biblical  study  has  made  it  necessary 
to  revise  our  theory  of  inspiration.  It  is  said  that 
the  high  ground  taken  by  our  fathers  cannot  be 
maintained.  We  have  fallen  on  an  age  of  careful 
and  well-equipped  criticism.  Germany  has  ex- 
amined and  spoken.  The  teachings  of  the  West- 
minster and  other  great  confessions,  of  Gaussen 
and  Doddridge  and  Edwards  and  Knapp,  were  pre- 
mature, ill-considered,  and  must  be  largely  modi- 
fied in  the  light  of  a  riper  scholarship  and  fuller 
knowledge.  In  particular  we  are  warned  that  we 
cannot  now  insist  on  the  inerrancy  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, even  of  the  originals,  as  to  historic  and  sci- 
entific matters  and  the  smaller  details  of  all  sorts; 
that  it  is  altogether  safer  and  more  in  the  line  of 
recent  findings  to  speak  of  the  Scriptures  as  co7t- 
tainingdi  divine  message  than  as  bcirig  such  a  mes- 
sage. And  so  we  are  told,  perhaps  with  bald  out- 
spokenness and  perhaps  under  various  disguises 
of  reverent  and  orthodox  phrase,  of  the  mistakes 
of  IMoses  and  Matthew,  of  Peter  and  Paul,  and 
even  of  the  Lord  Jesus  himself  Not  a  few  are 
reluctant  to  speak  out.  They  prefer  to  put  things 
in  a  mild  and  unalarming  way.  "The  old  truth 
must  have  restatement  to  adapt  it  to  these  times." 


i=;d 


UNIVERSAL    BELIEFS. 


But  when  we  come  to  examine  closely  we  find 
that  it  is  not  the  old  truth  at  all,  but  rather  an  old 
foe  with  a  new  face.  What  appears  is  a  restate- 
ment; what  is  behind  it  is  a  mild  form  of  infidel- 
ity, if  there  can  be  such  a  thing.  And  all  in  the 
name  of  the  (almost)  twentieth  century  and  new 
light ! 

Pray,  what  are  the  new  facts?  What  great 
discoveries  have  made  necessary  this  great  change 
of  base  ?  Has  it  just  been  discovered  that  our 
copies  of  the  Scriptures  differ  somewhat  among 
themselves?  Has  it  just  come  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  public  that  quotations  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment by  the  Master  and  his  disciples  were  not 
always  in  the  exact  original  words?  Was  it  with- 
in the  present  century  or  the  last  that  the  people 
found  out  that  every  sacred  penman  has  his  pecu- 
liarities of  both  thought  and  expression?  Cer- 
tainly such  facts  were  as  w^ell  known  to  the  fathers 
as  they  are  to  us.  And  yet  those  fathers  stood  up 
for  the  entire  infallibility  of  the  original  Scrip- 
tures, also  for  the  practical  identity  of  the  copies 
in  their  possession  with  the  originals.  They  saw 
no  inconsistency  in  doing  so. 

Nor  do  we.  The  ancient  theory  does  not  sup- 
pose that  the  Bible  has  been  kept  from  <^// changes, 
but  only  from  all  Jiarmfid  ones;  supposes  that  the 
differences  between  copies  are,  all  things  consid- 


INFALLIBLE   ORACLES.  151 

ered,  of  no  consequence  whatever,  bringing  into 
question  not  a  single  item  of  doctrine  or  duty. 
The  ancient  theory  does  not  suppose  that  there  is 
only  one  best  way  of  saying  the  same  thing;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  supposes  that  there  may  be  sev- 
eral such  ways,  all  equally  forcible  and  desirable. 
The  ancient  theory  does  not  suppose  that  the  in- 
fallible God,  who  made  men  after  so  many  differ- 
ent patterns,  is  not  able  to  express  infallible  truth 
in  as  many  different  patterns  of  literature,  each  in 
harmony  with  the  natural  characteristics  of  the 
writer;  but  supposes,  and  has  good  reason  to  sup- 
pose, the  exact  contrary.  Indeed,  it  is  by  no 
means  the  plainest  thing  in  the  world  that  the 
facts  on  which  the  advocates  of  lax  theories  of 
inspiration  stumble,  and  which  they  put  forward 
as  compelling  to  such  theories,  are  inconsistent 
with  even  that  most  exacting  theory  of  verbal  in- 
spiration which  regards  the  sacred  writers  as  mere 
amanuenses,  setting  down  automatically  ipsissima 
verba  as  doled  out  to  them  by  the  irresistible 
Spirit. 


VII.  IMMORTAL  SOULS, 


'Qare  koI  aOdvarov  ti  hiKev  rj  ipvxv  dvai.         PLATO. 
So  that  the  soul  seems  to  be  something  immortal. 


SuPREMUS  ille  dies  non  nobis  extinctionem,  sed  commu- 
tationem  affert  loci.  cicero. 

That  last  day  does  not  bring  us  extinction,  but  change  of 
place. 


Dies  iste,  quern  tamquam  extremum  reformidas,  aeterni 
natalis  est.  seneca. 

That  day  which  you  dread  as  if  the  last  is  the  birthday 
of  eternity. 


Who  are  able  to  kill  the  body,  but  are  not  able  to  kill  the 

soul.  CHRIST. 


IMMORTAL  SOUI.S.  1 55 


VII.   IMMORTAL  SOULS. 

The  Bible  teaches  us  that  in  every  human 
body  dwells  a  spiritual  being  that  thinks  and  feels 
and  chooses,  and  whose  existence  and  operations 
no  more  depend  on  the  body  which  it  inhabits 
than  those  of  the  tenant  of  a  house  do  on  the 
house.  When  a  house,  from  any  cause,  becomes 
uninhabitable  the  tenant  goes  out,  but  goes  out 
with  all  his  powers  unimpaired.  So  when  the 
body  from  any  cause  becomes  an  unfit  dwelling 
for  the  soul,  the  two  part  company,  and  the  soul 
goes  out  into  what  we  call  the  future  staie^  but 
goes  out  with  all  its  essential  faculties  unchanged. 
It  can  think  and  reason  and  imagine  and  remem- 
ber and  anticipate;  can  fear  and  hope,  enjoy  and 
suffer,  love  and  hate;  can  consider  and  choose 
and  resolve  and  execute,  just  as  it  does  now — 
merely  an  evicted  tenant.  After  the  eviction  the 
soul  continues  to  live  indefinitely.  Dispossession 
does  not  mean  extinction.  Going  out  of  sight 
does  not  mean  going  out  of  being.  It  merely 
means  entering  on  a  new  and  permanent  phase  of 
life.  It  may  be  under  the  happiest  conditions,  it 
may  be  under  the  most  unhappy;   but  whether 


156  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

happy  or  miserable,  the  intelligent,  conscious  soul 
will  live  on  for  ever;  this,  whether  it  is  good  or 
bad,  wise  or  foolish,  great  or  small.  God  will 
never  extinguish  the  lamp  which  he  has  once 
lighted.  It  will  never  go  out  from  lack  of  fuel. 
No  stormy  wind  of  painful  circumstance  will  sud- 
denly snuff  it  into  darkness. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  cite  passages  in  proof 
that  such  is  the  Scripture  teaching.  It  is  so  w^o- 
ven  into  the  whole  texture  of  both  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testament  that  it  appears  conspicuously 
in  all  the  great  creeds  of  Christendom.  The  du- 
ality of  man  as  body  and  soul,  the  continued  exist- 
ence of  the  soul  after  the  death  of  the  body,  the 
absolute  endlessness  of  such  existence,  is  every- 
where expressed  or  implied  in  all  the  great  con- 
fessions. A  few  individuals  here  and  there  main- 
tain that  the  Bible  teaches  only  the  immortality 
of  the  good:  that,  though  the  life  of  the  bad  may 
be  vastly  prolonged,  it  will  at  last  come  to  com- 
plete goodness  or  to  complete  extinction ;  but 
these  dissenters  from  the  general  view  are  rela- 
tively too  few  to  deserve  notice.  So  they  have 
always  been.  In  the  history  of  the  ancient  church 
they  are  represented  by  a  single  obscure  man — . 
Arnobius. 

These  practically  universal  Christian  and  Jew- 
ish views  are  repeated  in  the  Koran  and  held  by 


IMMORTAL  SOUI.S.  157 

all  Mohammedans.  And  they  are  held  by  all  the 
Eastern  Asiatic  nations  with  their  hundreds  of 
millions.  The  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of 
souls  prevails  everywhere  among  them — a  doc- 
trine that  assumes  a  separate  spiritual  agent  in 
every  man  which  passes  at  death  into  another 
body,  and  then  into  still  another,  and  so  on  in 
perhaps  innumerable  transfers,  till  it  comes  to  a 
fixed  state.  This  fixed  state  is  not  generally  sup- 
posed to  be  absolute  extinction  of  being,  though 
this  was  probably  taught  by  Buddha  under  the 
name  of  Nirvana.  If  so,  the  teaching  is  now 
practically  inoperative.  "Human  nature,"  says 
Max  Miiller,  "could  not  be  changed.  Out  of  the 
very  nothing  it  made  a  new  paradise,"  a  state  of 
blissful  absorption  into  the  living  divine  essence 
for  such  as  pass  their  various  transmigrations  well. 
But  among  other  Orientals  nothing  is  said  of  an 
end  coming  to  their  separate  conscious  existence. 
"In  the  Rig- Veda,"  says  Max  Miiller,  "we  find 
a  belief  in  immortality  and  in  personal  immor- 
tality." 

In  the  Transactions  of  the  Philosophical  Soci- 
ety of  Great  Britain  for  1885  we  find  the  follow- 
ing: "When  we  look  at  a  graveyard  on  Puget 
Sound  and  see  there  canoes,  muskets,  cloth, 
clothes,  dishes,  looking-glasses,  bows  and  arrows, 
and  almost  evervthiufr  that  is  valuable  to  an  In- 


158  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

dian  in  this  life,  silently  yet  eloquently  they  say 
one  thing,  that  those  who  placed  them  there  be- 
lieved in  the  immortality  of  the  soul;  that,  as 
these  articles  decay,  they  will  be  carried  by  spir- 
its away  to  the  deceased  in  the  next  world,  there 
to  be  put  together  again  and  used.  And  what  is 
thus  said  there  is  also  said  all  over  America,  from 
the  frozen  regions  of  the  North  to  Terra  del  Fue- 
0-0  on  the  South,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  with,  it  is  barely  possible,  a  few  excep- 
tions, and  it  is  not  certain  about  these." 

In  the  Old  World,  looking  backward,  we  find 
Cicero  writing,  "That  the  souls  of  men  survive 
the  dissolution  of  the  body  we  may  consider  as  a 
truth  sanctioned  by  the  universal  belief  of  all 
nations."  Actual  examination  more  than  verifies 
these  w^ords.  We  find  the  old  Celts  and  Germans 
and  Scandinavians  holding,  amid  many  follies 
and  errors,  as  firmly  to  a  future  state  for  man,  and 
an  endless  one,  as  Christians  do.  The  Greeks 
and  Romans  conceived  of  all  human  bodies  as 
occupied  by  spirits  who  at  death  w^ent  away  to 
places  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  there  per- 
manently remained — in  Tartarus  or  the  Elysian 
Fields — as  shades,  but  as  full  of  active  life  as 
ever.  The  tombs  and  other  monuments  of  the 
Egyptians  and  Assyrians  are  profuse  with  testi- 
monies to  a  future  state,  and  to  one  of  which  no 


IMMORTAL  SOULS.  159 

end  was  imagined.  According  to  Herodotus, ' '  The 
Egyptians  were  the  first  to  maintain  that  the  soul 
of  man  is  immortal." 

Perhaps  it  seems  to  some  that  the  actual  lives 
of  men  show  that  after  all  they  do  not  really  be- 
lieve their  creeds  as  to  the  soul.  How  do  most 
live  ?  Do  they  live  as  if  fully  assured  that  their 
fellows,  or  even  themselves,  are  of  infinite  value? 
Do  they  act  as  if  their  present  life  is  of  no  conse- 
quence as  compared  with  the  life  to  come  ?  We 
think  that,  taking  the  world  through,  men  act 
very  differently  from  what  they  would  do  if  they 
thought  that  life  ends  at  death.  At  the  same 
time  we  have  to  allow  that  most  people  come  far 
short  of  that  strain  of  living  that  would  be  reason- 
able in  immortal  beings.  How  scornfully  the 
great  are  apt  to  treat  the  small !  In  what  a  petty, 
short-sighted  way  do  most  people  bear  themselves! 
Seemingly  they  live  solely  for  the  present  life. 
Seemingly  they  act  as  if  there  were  no  hereafter. 
To  look  at  them  one  would  not  dream  that  there 
is  anything  for  them  beyond  the  grave,  much  less 
an  existence  that  uncoils  itself  through  endless 
ages.  Is  it  possible  that  these  people  really  be- 
lieve that  they  are  to  live  for  ever?  Yes,  quite 
possible.  For,  see  how  men  live  in  view  of  the 
death  which  they  absolutely  know  to  be  certain  as 
to  fact  and  uncertain  as  to  time — how  carelessly, 


l6o  UNIVERSAL   BEUEFS. 

how  unwisely,  how  inconsistently!  They  cannot 
but  grant  you  that  they  are  sure  to  die  soon  and 
may  die  to-morrow,  and  yet  they  act  as  if  they 
were  to  live  here  for  ever.  Strange !  We  can  only 
say,  These  men  know,  but  they  do  not  realize 
what  they  know.  And  so  we  have  to  say  in  the 
other  case.  Men  believe  in  a  future  state  and  an 
immortal  one;  but  realization  is  lacking.  The 
fact  is  seen,  but  is  seen  from  afar.  The  fact  is 
seen,  but  is  seen  as  a  shadow  and  a  dwarf. 

Whence  this  general  belief  of  men?  Is  it  a 
relic  of  a  primitive  revelation  to  the  race  so  clear 
and  emphatic  that  its  echoes  have  never  died 
away?  Or  is  it  a  subtle  consciousness,  inherent 
in  all  men,  of  an  interior  nature  whose  substance 
lies  altogether  above  the  plane  of  bodily  ills; 
which,  indeed,  often  actually  rises  superior  to 
all  outward  circumstances,  and  with  sovereign 
look  and  gesture  defies  accident  and  disease  and 
anguish  in  all  their  protean  shapes,  and  even 
grimmest  death  itself?  Or  is  it  a  blind  instinct 
original  in  human  nature,  like  the  instinctive 
knowledge  of  the  ways  and  means  of  living  with 
which  brutes  are  endowed  from  the  outset?  Or 
is  it  an  easy  inference  from  certain  facts  that 
gradually  come  to  the  knowledge  of  all — such  as 
the  insufficiency  of  the  present  life  to  meet  the 
capacities,  cravings,  and  needs  of  men  as  well  as 


IMMORTAL   SOULS.  l6l 

the  demands  of  divine  justice?  Or  may  there 
not  be  a  natural  presentiment  of  life  as  well  as  of 
death;  and,  as  coming  events  sometimes  cast  their 
shadows  before,  and  as  morning  and  spring  and 
returning  health  send  out  forerunners  to  say,  "We 
are  coming,"  does  not  his  Majesty,  the  Future 
State,  also  have  his  avant-couriers  and  John  Bap- 
tists to  prepare  his  way  in  the  form  of  hints,  pre- 
monitions, presumptions,  which  separately  are  of 
little  account,  but  which  collectively  create  an  at- 
mosphere in  w^hich  unbelief  cannot  well  breathe  ? 
Whichever  of  these  suppositions  w^e  may  choose, 
the  general  belief  in  a  future  state  points  to  2.  fact. 
The  belief  is,  because  the  hereafter  is.  The  sub- 
jective is  crowded  into  being  by  the  objective. 

There  is,  indeed,  another  supposition  possible. 
It  is  that  the  general  belief  in  another  life  is  one 
of  the  ancient  superstitions  of  the  w^orld,  cherished 
and  perhaps  begun  by  priestcraft,  and  bound  to 
decay  and  finally  disappear  as  knowledge  advan- 
ces— as  other  superstitions  do.  Yes,  this  is  the 
way  real  superstitions  do.  You  have  only  to  en- 
large a  man's  knowledgfe  and  faculties  to  a  certain 
extent,  and  his  superstitions  will  fall  off  from  him 
as  fell  Peter's  chains  at  the  touch  of  a  luminous 
anofel.  But  it  is  not  so  vnth  belief  in  a  future 
state.  Many  a  man  has  retained,  and  even  en- 
hanced it,  amid  the  illumination  of  the  largest 

L'niversal  Beliprs.  I  I 


l62  UNIVERSAI.  BEUEFS. 

faculties  and  the  widest  knowledge.  Newton  was 
not  an  ignoramus,  nor  was  Blaise  Pascal.  No 
doubt  faith  in  a  hereafter  does  sometimes  retreat 
as  knowledge  advances,  but  it  is  not  because  of 
such  advance.  It  is  rather  in  spite  of  it.  Dislike 
to  the  truth,  superficial  examination,  intellectual 
dishonesty,  prejudices  of  many  sorts,  hasty  and 
erratic  thinking  in  the  modes  perhaps  of  science 
and  philosophy  falsely  so  called  —  such  things, 
and  sometimes  downright  wickedness,  are  by  no 
means  unknown  to  men  of  talents  and  informa- 
tion, and  are  enough  to  ' '  create  a  soul  (of  unbe- 
lief) under  the  ribs  of  death." 

Now  let  us  see  whether  this  wide  consent  of 
creeds  and  nations  and  ages  to  a  spiritual  nature 
in  man,  to  a  future  state  for  it,  and  to  its  endless- 
ness, is  not  supported  by  still  another  consensus. 

I.  As  to  the  existence  of  the  soul  itself  as  a  being 
distinct  from  the  body. 

If  thought,  feeling,  and  choice  are  not  due  to 
such  a  being,  they  must  result  from  bodily  organ- 
ization. But  mere  combination  and  arrangement 
of  atoms,  however  elaborate,  cannot  generate  es- 
sentially new  properties — can  only  modify  such 
as  already  exist.  But  among  the  properties  be- 
longing to  material  atoms  our  science  has  not  yet 
detected  any  save  what  differ  in  nature,  toto  orbe, 
from  the  properties  which  we  call  spiritual.     If 


IMMORTAL  SOULS.  1 63 

we  know  anything,  we  know  that  intelligence, 
purpose,  sensibility,  memory,  consciousness,  do 
not  belong  in  the  slightest  degree  to  atoms  of  mat- 
ter, but  are  totally  different  in  nature  from  such 
qualities  as  we  do  know  to  characterise  matter, 
e.  g.,  gravitation,  chemical  affinity. 

Further;  if  our  mental  operations  are  a  prod- 
uct of  mere  matter  with  its  forces  and  laws,  then 
they  are  necessary ;  we  cannot  think,  feel,  or  choose 
differently  from  what  we  do.  We  are  no  more 
responsible  for  our  choices,  and  the  actions  that 
flow  from  them,  than  a  stone  is  for  falling  or  a 
planet  for  wheeling  about  the  sun.  This  contra- 
dicts our  consciousness  and  the  general  voice  of 
mankind.  We  know  that  our  wills  are  free,  and 
that  consequently  we  are  blameworthy  or  praise- 
worthy. The  treatment  of  men  by  one  another, 
in  all  ages  and  countries,  postulates  this  with  a 
unanimity  that  is  absolutely  universal  and  un- 
questionable. We  cannot  admit  a  theory  of  our 
mental  operations  that  implies  fatalism.  It  were 
fatal  to  morals.  It  contradicts  consciousness  and 
the  practical  verdict  of  all  humanity. 

If  one  says  that  the  mental  operations  are  usu- 
ally found  to  sympathize  with  the  state  of  the 
body — to  sicken  as  it  sickens,  to  weaken  as  it 
weakens,  to  disappear  as  it  disappears — I  answer, 
Yes.    But,  then,  this  would  be  so  if  the  body  were 


164  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

merely  the  instrument  used  by  the  mind.  Of 
course,  with  a  given  agent,  the  worse  the  tool  the 
worse  the  work.  But  there  are  exceptions.  In 
cases  not  a  few  the  mind  seems  at  its  best  when 
the  body  is  at  its  worst.  The  one  brightens  and 
strengthens  as  the  other  declines.  When  life  is 
almost  gone  the  spiritual  faculties  will  sometimes 
blaze  out  into  a  vigor  and  splendor  which  they 
have  never  before  shown. 

Says  Prof.  Peabody:  "  I  have  repeatedly  stood 
by  the  death-bed  of  one  attenuated  by  long  infir- 
mity, every  vital  process  clogged,  the  pulse  inter- 
mittent, the  blood  already  becoming  stagnant; 
and  I  have  seen  the  dying  still  in  the  full  vigor 
of  his  intellect,  master  of  his  position,  clearer  and 
stronger  in  thought  and  judgment  than  any  one 
of  the  bystanders,  addressing  appropriate  counsel 
or  consolation  to  each  of  the  afflicted  circle,  dic- 
tating messages  of  love  to  the  absent,  and  leaving 
no  person  or  interest  forgotten  that  had  the  re- 
motest right  to  a  place  in  his  remembrance.  I 
have  heard,  too,  in  the  hour  and  in  the  embrace 
of  death,  not  the  feverish  ecstasies  of  unreasoning 
fanaticism,  but  the  serene  utterances  of  a  mature 
religious  wisdom,  of  undoubting  faith,  of  quiet 
trust,  of  a  foreseeing  hope  that  had  already  crossed 
the  separating  stream  and  passed  within  the  gold- 
en gates;  and  in  the  eye  kindled  with  a  purer,  ho- 


IMMORTAL   SOULS.  165 

lier  light  than  ever  glows  except  in  the  Christian's 
ascension-room,  in  the  wan  conntenance  radiant 
with  the  foreshining  of  the  heavenly  day,  in  the 
air  of  joyous  expectancy  with  which  the  parting 
moment  is  waited  for  and  welcomed,  the  soul's 
voice  is,  "Death,  I  am  not  thine,  and  I  defy  thy 
power.  I  am  mightier  than  thou  art.  Thou  art 
but  the  doorkeeper  of  my  house  not  made  with 
hands,  my  usher  into  the  blessed  society  of  the 
unfallen  and  redeemed." 

Such  cases  are  numerous.  And  they  seem  to 
show  something  more  than  that  mind  does  not 
result  from  bodily  organization.  They  strongly 
suggest  that  it  can  do  without  such  organization 
as  an  instrument  altogether,  and  is  on  the  eve  of 
doing  it.  The  African  missionary  Adams,  when 
near  death,  was  like  a  man  who,  long  bound  to 
his  room  by  the  bonds  of  night  and  fatigue  and 
sleep,  at  last  grows  restless  as  the  approaching 
morning  gradually  relaxes  his  bonds,  and  gives 
unmistakable  signs  that  he  will  erelong  greet 
the  full  day  with  open  eyes  and  outgoing  feet 
and  busy,  forceful  hands  that  will  mock  at  the 
comparative  indolence  of  the  fettered  state  he  has 
just  left. 

If  the  mental  powers  were  the  result  of  the 
general  bodily  organization,  the  most  perfect  and 
healthy  bodies  would  show  us  the  finest  specimens 


1 66  UNIVERSAL    BELIEFS. 

of  minds.  How  far  this  is  from  fact  everybody 
knows.  Some  feeble  Pascal  who  has  never  known 
a  well  day  has  the  mightiest  soul  of  his  genera- 
tion. Some  mighty  brute  of  a  body,  built  like  a 
Hercules  or  an  Apollo,  is  as  puny  in  his  wits  as  a 
child.  When  was  the  discovery  made  that  all 
healthy  and  finely-proportioned  people  are  pos- 
sessed of  superior  abilities?  No  experienced  per- 
son thinks  it  safe  to  infer  a  man's  talents  from  the 
way  his  body  is  gotten  up.  He  has  no  occasion 
to  think  of  ^sop  and  Socrates  and  Julius  Caesar. 
The  great  grenadiers  of  Prussia  were  never  heard 
of  for  any  other  greatness  than  that  of  their 
bodies. 

If  one  supposes  that  mental  excellence,  instead 
of  depending  on  the  ^^;/^r<^/ excellence  of  the  body, 
depends  rather  on  that  of  some  particular  part, 
say  on  the  large  size,  fine  quality,  and  delicate 
organization  of  the  brain,  I  answer  that  this  may 
be  and  yet  the  brain  be  merely  an  instrument  of 
the  indwelling  and  distinct  soul.  Its  manifesta- 
tions, in  that  case,  might  be  expected  to  vary 
largely  with  the  excellence  of  the  tool  employed. 
But  I  answer,  still  further,  that  no  part  of  the  body 
has  less  appearance  of  elaborate  and  delicate  ma- 
terial and  structure  than  the  brain ;  that  the  cases 
are  many  of  Olympian  heads  with  no  mental  forces 
to  match  (the  average  Polynesian  skull  is  more  ca- 


IMMORTAL   SOULS.  167 

pacious  than  the  average  French);  and  that,  how- 
ever it  may  be  with  many  individnals,  corporeal 
excellence  in  all  other  respects  is  generally  asso- 
ciated with  that  of  the  head.  The  various  parts 
tend  to  proportion  and  harmony  with  one  another. 
Nature  abhors  disproportion  and  schism  as  much 
as  she  does  a  vacuum.  ' '  And  whether  one  member 
suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it;  or  one  mem- 
ber be  honored,  all  the  members  rejoice  with  it. "  A 
large  and  shapely  trunk  will  commonly  have  over 
it  a  large  and  shapely  head.  Brobdignag  shoul- 
ders object  to  Liliputian  brains.  So  that,  in  gen- 
eral at  least,  if  the  materialistic  theory  of  the  soul 
is  true,  the  grade  of  our  mental  faculties  should 
be  interpretable  from  the  grade  of  our  bodies— as 
it  plainly  is  not. 

It  seems,  then,  that  while  the  notion  that  the 
soul  is  not  a  distinct  entity  within  the  body,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  a  genetic  result  of  the  body,  or  of 
some  part  of  it,  gets  no  support  from  the  general 
sympathy  of  the  mind  with  the  body  in  the  decay 
of  its  powers,  it  is  negatived  by  the  fact  that  the 
mental  operations  are  sometimes  more  vigorous 
and  brilliant  than  ever  in  the  collapse  of  the 
bodily  powers  —  even  as  some  sunsets  are  more 
glorious  than  midday;  also  negatived  by  the  fact 
that  neither  the  general  excellence  of  the  body 
nor  that  of  the  head  is  any  sure  or  even  probable 


1 68  uxivERSAL  belip:fs. 

guide  as  to  the  quality  or  compass  of  the  mental 
powers;  also,  and  above  all,  negatived  by  the  fact 
that  materialism  means  fatalism^  and  so  subverts 
the  whole  foundation  of  morals  and  contradicts 
the  consciousness  of  freedom  and  responsibility 
that  is  common  to  all  mankind. 

II.  As  to  the  existence  of  the  soul  after  the  death 
of  the  body. 

If  the  soul  is  indeed  an  entity  distinct  from 
the  body,  not  depending  on  the  body  for  its  char- 
acteristic properties,  using  the  body  as  a  tenant 
does  his  house  or  as  a  sailor  does  his  ship  or  as  a 
mechanic  does  the  tools  of  his  trade,  there  is  a  pre- 
sumption that  it  does  not  perish  with  the  body. 
Does  the  house-tenant  of  course  perish  when,  from 
any  cause,  the  house  is  no  longer  habitable?  Does 
the  sailor  of  course  disappear  from  the  seas  when 
his  vessel  is  no  longer  seaworthy,  or  the  farmer 
from  the  fields  when  his  ploughs  and  hoes  are 
worn  out?  And  the  strong  presumption  is  that 
the  soul  too  will  live  on  after  its  dw^elling  or 
tool  has  become  unfit  for  its  use.  There  is  noth- 
ing in  death,  as  known  to  us,  that  needs  to  harm 
any  spiritual  faculty.  Of  course,  God,  the  Maker 
of  the  soul,  could,  if  he  should  choose,  make  its 
end  to  synchronise  with  that  of  the  body;  but 
there  is  no  evidence  that  he  has  so  chosen,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  evidence  that  he  has  not. 


IMMORTAL   SOULS.  1 69 

The  present  life  is  too  brief  to  match  the  plans, 
the  powers,  and  the  wishes  of  at  least  a  large  part 
of  mankind.  At  the  close  of  life  they  are  con- 
scious of  faculties  for  which  as  yet  they  have  had 
no  adequate  field  and  opportunity.  They  have 
laid  out  broad  plans,  it  may  be,  of  noble  service 
to  their  fellow-men  and  are  called  to  die  before 
they  have  had  time  to  carry  out  their  plans. 
They  crave  continued  life.  They  enjoy  living 
and  working  and  accomplishing,  and  they  look 
with  vast  disfavor  on  the  idea  of  stepping  down 
and  out  into  black  and  everlasting  nothingness. 
By  a  law  of  nature  as  clear,  original,  and  imper- 
ative as  that  by  which  the  planets  cling  to  the 
sun  and  refuse  the  cold  and  black  vacuity  of  mid- 
space,  their  whole  nature  revolts  from  the  blas- 
phemy of  non-existence.  This  even  in  infirmest 
old  age.  But  many  valuable  lives  are  broken  off 
much  earlier.  Perhaps  they  have  just  finished  a 
long  and  expensive  career  of  education.  Their 
powers  are  only  just  beginning  to  fledge.  They 
have  only  given  one  stroke  on  the  arena  of 
achievement.  Their  plans  are  large,  their  hopes 
are  strong,  and  the  great  forces  within  them  champ 
and  foam  like  blooded  steeds  under  curb,  waiting 
for  permission  to  spring  away  to  the  goal.  But 
the  permission  never  comes.  The  young  minister 
hardlv  does  more  than  preach  his  first  sermon. 


I70  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

The  young  lawyer  hardly  does  more  than  make 
his  first  plea.  The  young  scientist  hardly  does 
more  than  make  first  knocks  at  the  door  of  the 
unknown.  Then  the  summons  to  leave  all  comes, 
and  he  is  laid  away  in  the  grave  amid  the  tears 
and  disappointments  of  perhaps  thousands.  Alas 
for  the  Spencers  and  Larneds  !  ' '  Ostcnditnt  icr- 
ris  hiinc  iantiim  fata^  neqiie  ultra  esse  siiienty 
Worse  than  this.  Little  children  in  great  num- 
bers, with  talents  and  opportunities  apparently  as 
good  as  the  best,  are  cut  down  at  the  first  shooting 
of  their  tender  blades  above  ground,  are  nipped 
by  the  death  frost  in  the  first  budding  of  their 
fruit,  are  quenched  in  the  first  dawning  of  their 
day.  What  do  their  lives  here  amount  to?  What 
disproportion  between  such  mere  hints  and  sug- 
gestions of  life  and  the  majestic  spiritual  energies 
that  lie  coiled  up  in  some  of  them  !  Some  of 
them,  if  spared,  could  have  sung  as  well  as 
Homer.  Others  could  have  reigned  over  assem- 
blies with  their  sceptred  voices  as  did  Demos- 
thenes or  Chalmers.  Still  others  could  have 
reigned  still  more  widely  across  continents  and 
ages  with  their  sceptred  pens.  What  a  w^aste  if 
death  ends  all  !  What  a  host  of  abortive  and 
abandoned  undertakings  —  incomplete,  half  fin- 
ished, just  begun — begun  and  then  dropped  for 
ever  !     Whole  cities  of  houses  in  the  first  stasres 


IMMORTAL   SOULS.  171 

of  building,  and  lo,  all  work  finally  suspended; 
whole  navies  in  the  dock-yards  with  great  keels 
fairly  laid,  and  then  left  to  rot !  Who  does  such 
things?  Here  and  there  a  fickle,  foolish,  or  im- 
poverished man,  but  certainly  not  the  all-wise  and 
all-mighty  and  steadfast  God.  He  will  fulfil  all 
his  promises,  whether  of  word  or  deed.  His  deed 
in  giving  man  so  richly  dowered  a  soul  contains 
a  promise  of  some  worthy  field  and  opportunity 
somewhere  for  all  its  powers. 

Again,  a  future  state  is  demanded  by  the  jiis^ 
tice  of  God.  It  is  plain  to  the  commonest  sort  of 
observation  that  men  in  this  life  are  not  always 
treated  by  divine  Providence  accurately  according 
to  their  deserts.  The  best  men  sometimes  have 
harder  lots  than  the  worst  for  a  thousand  miles 
around.  Saints  !  Yes,  but  they  are  poor,  sick, 
uncomely,  despised,  hated,  persecuted,  perhaps 
set  up  to  burn  as  torches  in  Nero's  gardens,  while 
the  monster  himself,  clad  in  purple,  lording  it 
over  nations,  looks  down  gleefully  on  the  scene 
from  a  window  of  his  palace.  This  is  an  extreme 
case,  but  past  and  present  society  are  full  of  cases 
essentially  similar.  All  know  that  the  character 
of  a  man  can  never  be  inferred  with  any  certainty 
from  his  general  outward  condition  during  his 
present  life.  He  may  live  to  the  end  full  of 
honors  and  wealth  and  health  and  still  be  a  bad 


172  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

man.  He  may  live  to  the  end  full  of  dishonors 
and  want  and  sickness  and  still  be  a  good  man. 
The  rags  of  I^azarus  cover  a  man  fit  for  Abraham's 
bosom.  The  purple  of  Dives  covers  a  man  fit 
only  for  hell.  Such  facts  for  a  time  stumbled 
David,  as  they  have  done  many  another  man.  It 
did  not  for  the  moment  occur  to  the  Psalmist  how 
the  divine  justice  could  be  sustained.  His  face 
o-rew  black.  But  then  there  shot  into  his  painful 
thought  the  idea  of  a  future  state.  It  was  an 
apocalypse.  "Ah  !  I  see  it  now,"  he  cried;  "  the 
future  state  w^ill  set  matters  all  right.  So  foolish 
was  I  and  ignorant;  I  was  as  a  beast  before  thee  !" 
David  was  right.  Job,  as  against  his  three 
friends,  was  right.  If  there  is  a  hereafter,  there 
is  still  an  opportunity  for  God  to  be  just.  What 
is  to  come  may  square  accounts  with  the  past,  and 
the  retributions  of  joy  and  sorrow  after  death  may 
give  all  to  see  that  God  holds  an  even  balance 
and  renders  to  every  man  according  to  his  work. 
Justice  has  only  been  delayed,  never  abandoned. 
The  present  is  a  time  of  forbearance  and  proba- 
tion; in  the  next  state  men  will  reap  as  they  have 
sown  in  this.  But  if  there  is  no  next  state,  if 
w^hat  our  present  eyes  cover  is  the  entire  total  of 
human  existence  and  there  is  nothing  for  man 
beyond  this  current  chaos  of  undecipherable  prov- 
idences, why,  then,  wq  must  say,   though  it  be 


IMMORTAI.   SOULS.  I73 

with  a  look  and  gesture  of  despair,  "God  is  not 
the  being  that  we  thought  him.  His  justice  is 
not  a  mystery  merely;  it  is  a  myth  as  well." 
Such  are  the  hard  words  to  which,  with  lashes 
and  goads,  the  facts  seem  to  compel  us. 

But  we  refuse  the  compulsion.  We  refuse  to 
give  up  the  idea  of  divine  justice.  Our  natures 
revolt  at  the  very  idea  of  an  Infinite  Being  who 
is  not  governed  by  principles  of  equity.  Neither 
good  nor  bad  men  would  know  v/hat  to  count  on. 
Would  God  have  given  us  a  nature  that  recoils 
from  himself?  The  very  sentiment  of  justice 
which  he  has  imbedded  in  our  constitutions  and 
to  which  he  has  given  such  lordly  authority  shows 
what  principles  he  loves,  patronizes,  and  acts 
under.  The  Being  who  has  so  made  us  that  we 
have  to  condemn  and  flagellate  ourselves  for  in- 
justice, and  sometimes  to  fall  into  a  very  passion 
of  jDcnitence,  will  not  himself  administer  an  unjust 
government.  He  could  have  made  us  intelligent 
beings,  and  so  intelligent  as  to  be  able  to  perceive 
the  difference  between  the  fit  and  unfit,  the  useful 
and  the  harmful,  the  right  and  the  wrong,  and 
yet  not  have  put  a  self-acting  scourge  in  the 
hands  of  the  soul  to  punish  itself  withal;  for  men 
do  sometimes  manage  to  get  rid  of  this  scourge, 
at  least  temporarily,  and  even  of  the  faculty  of 
moral  judgment  itself.     Sometimes  they  totally 


174  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

reverse  the  poles  of  morals — "calling  evil  good 
and  good  evil,  putting  darkness  for  light  and 
light  for  darkness,  putting  bitter  for  sweet  and 
sweet  for  bitter" — nay,  they  come  to  be  unable 
to  see  that  any  radical  distinction  whatever  exists 
between  right  and  wrong,  and  actively  and  loudly 
deny  the  reality  of  such  distinctions.  The  whole 
field  of  morals  has  become  to  them  not  merely  a 
blur,  but  a  blank,  and  a  very  black  one  at  that. 

What  brutes  do  not  possess,  and  man  can  sup- 
press, does  not  belong  essentially  to  an  intelligent 
nature,  not  even  to  one  of  the  human  grade,  and 
so  could  have  been  withheld  from  us  by  our  Ma- 
ker. The  fact  that  he  has  not  done  it  shows 
where  he  stands.  And  the  fact  that  the  throne  of 
judgment  which  he  has  set  up  in  every  bosom 
does,  until  it  has  been  overturned  by  long-contin- 
ued and  flagrant  insurrection,  chastise  conscious 
unrighteousness  so  severely  and  reward  conscious 
righteousness  so  superbly  shows  that  his  position 
is  exceedingly  pronounced — that  he  "makes  for 
righteousness"  with  a  feeling  and  determination 
with  which  no  man  can  afford  to  trifle. 

Against  these  considerations  some  would  allege 
the  absence  of  all  communications  to  us  from 
spirits  after  the  death  of  their  bodies.  "We 
would  naturally  expect,"  say  they,  "that  such 
spirits    would    wish    to    communicate    with    the 


IMMORTAL   SOULS.  175 

friends  they  have  left,  especially  in  times  of  dis- 
tress and  emergency.  The  fact  that  they  do  not, 
that  their  world  is  always  '  as  silent  as  the  grave ' 
to  ns,  let  what  will  happen,  is  proof  that  it  does 
not  exist." 

Now  it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  a  future 
world  is  always  "as  silent  as  the  grave"— has 
never  given  any  sort  of  token  of  itself  to  living 
men.  Tokens  of  it  have  sometimes  seemed  to 
float  out  to  meet  dying  men,  just  as  strange  plants 
and  birds  and  sounds  floated  out  to  meet  Colum- 
bus as  he  approached  a  new  hemisphere.  He  was 
encouraged.  Was  not  India  hard  by?  The  sail- 
ors with  Paul  deemed  that  they  drew  nigh  to 
some  country.  Did  they  see  it  through  the  pitchy 
night?  Could  they  bring  any  sense  to  bear  di- 
rectly upon  it?  Nay,  but  there  was  an  inde- 
scribable something  in  the  air,  in  the  sounds  that 
came  to  them,  in  the  very  pulsations  of  the  waves, 
which,  taken  together,  carried  to  them  a  vague 
impression  of  land  just  at  hand.  The  impression 
was  correct.  Malta  was  just  ahead  in  the  dark- 
ness. So  it  seems  to  be  with  some  persons  as  they 
approach  death.  "Coming  events  cast  their 
shadows  before."  Subtile  pulsations,  aromas, 
temperatures,  mites  and  filaments  of  character- 
ization, seem  to  float  out  to  them  from  the  shores 
of  another  life  just   before  them.      Individually 


176  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

these  motes  have  no  appreciable  weight,  perhaps 
do  not  admit  of  being  specified;  but  collectively 
they  foot  up  to  much,  to  presumptions,  to  pre- 
sentiments, to  convictions — as  atoms  of  air  singly 
insignificant  at  last  gather  into  a  weight  of  fifteen 
pounds  to  the  square  inch.  A  presentiment !  It 
is  often  as  if  men  sazv  the  future  state.  They 
cannot  prove  it  to  us,  but  they  feel  it.  Is  this 
disease  or  is  it  superstition  ?  Are  not  we  some- 
times aware  of  the  presence  of  persons  and  dangers 
which,  from  darkness  or  blindness,  we  cannot  see? 
Does  not  the  night  traveller  sometimes  divine  that 
he  has  a  valley  before  him,  though  he  sees  noth- 
ing and  would  find  it  hard  to  tell  how  his  knowl- 
edge comes?  Do  we  tell  him  that  either  his  body 
or  mind  is  sick  ? 

But  let  us  for  a  moment  consent  to  grant  that 
the  future  state  is  for  the  present  silent  to  us.  No 
doubt  it  is  so  as  a  general  fact.  When  our  friends 
die  we  do  not  expect  to  consciously  hear  from 
them  again  while  we  are  in  the  flesh.  Is  there 
any  explanation  of  this  fact  consistent  with  the 
actual  existence  in  full  force  of  all  human  souls 
after  bodily  death?  The  Bible  explanation  is 
that  all  souls  at  death  go  to  two  other  worlds — 
one  class  as  closely-confined  criminals,  and  the 
other  as  inhabitants  of  a  distant  heaven  from 
which  they  may  indeed  occasionally  return  to  us 


IMMORTAL   SOULS.  1 77 

on  benevolent  ministries,  but  which  ministries  in 
general  must  be  performed  in  such  ways  as  not  to 
attract  the  notice  of  the  bodily  senses.  God  does 
not  think  it  best  that  the  future  state  and  the 
present  should  be  in  sensible  communication  with 
each  other.  To  walk  by  faith  and  not  by  sight  is 
the  need  of  living  men.  Are  we  prepared  to  con- 
tradict this  ?  We  do  not  know  enough  to  do  it. 
We  can  even  see  some  reasons  for  thinking  it 
might  be  very  undesirable  to  run  together  and 
mix  up  on  the  same  territory  two  worlds  of  such 
very  different  conditions.  Other  reasons  may  exist. 
Certainly  we  who  find  so  much  occasion  for  veils 
and  curtains  and  partitions  and  dead  walls  that 
exclude  both  sight  and  sound,  so  much  useful 
occasion  for  quarantines  and  segregations  and  ne 
plus  tiltras^  and  who  are  so  ready  to  allow  that  it 
is  well  in  general  that  the  day  and  other  circum- 
stances of  our  death  should  be  hidden  from  us — 
certainly  such  persons  should  not  think  them- 
selves qualified  to  affirm  that  no  good  reason  can 
exist  for  shutting  off"  a  world  of  spirits  from  all 
sensible  dealings  with  a  world  of  bodies,  a  world 
of  probation  from  a  world  of  retribution. 

III.  As  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

But  granting  that  the  soul  continues  to  exist 
after  the  death  of  the  body,  how  long  does  it  con- 
tinue?   The  traditions,  creeds,  and  current  beliefs 

Univeraal  Beliefs,  I  2 


178  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

of  mankind  say  that  it  continues  for  ever.  Does 
any  one  of  our  many  forms  of  science  say  a  word 
against  this  ?  On  the  contrary,  is  it  not  forcibly 
spoken  for  by  that  principle,  already  illustrated, 
that  underlies  so  many  of  our  natural  sciences, 
viz.y  the  principle  that  every  generic  need  has 
somewhere  over  against  it  an  adequate  supply, 
that  what  is  needed  to  meet  and  satisfy  and  make 
available  a  natural  trait  in  great  classes  of  objects 
always  exists  or  is  obtainable  ? 

We  are  able  to  do  what  the  brutes  apparently 
cannot — to  conceive  of  an  immortal  life.  Not 
only  have  some  preeminent  scholars  uncovered 
and  measured  vast  stretches  of  duration  that  lay 
hid  in  the  astronomical  heavens,  but  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  race  have,  to  a  man,  taken  in  a 
still  grander  idea — that  of  the  everlasting,  of  al- 
ways living.  The  idea  has  its  metaphysical  dif- 
ficulties, but  the  word  eternity  stands  for  a  real 
something  whose  permanent  existence  all  men 
know  with  intuitive  certainty. 

And  the  permanent  life  which  they  can  con- 
ceive of  they  strongly  desire  for  themselves. 
Dread  of  extinction;  a  craving  for  an  endless  life, 
provided  it  be  not  miserable;  especially  a  craving 
for  an  endless  life  that  ever  improves  in  beauty, 
dignity,  and  enjoyment,  belongs  to  human  na- 
ture.   It  is  constitutional,  universal,  ineradicable. 


IMMORTAL  SOULS.  1 79 

The  man  does  not  live  who  would  not  leap  with 
passionate  energy  to  meet  the  gift  of  such  a  life 
as  that,  away  from  the  black  gulf  of  everlasting 
nothingness.  One  can,  with  a  plenty  of  time  and 
pains,  pull  up  by  the  roots  some  forms  of  natural 
affection,  but  not  this.  It  is  thoroughly  invinci- 
ble. We  had  rather  be  extinguished  than  suffer 
without  end,  but  not  rather  than  enjoy  without 
end. 

We  not  only  find  in  human  nature  a  power  to 
conceive  of  an  immortal  life,  and  an  unextin- 
guishable  thirst  for  such  a  life  under  favorable 
conditions,  but  also  a  capacity  to  tise  such  a  life 
to  a  vast  extent.  We  are  conscious  of  power  to 
use  it  for  endless  improvement  in  knowledge,  vir- 
tue, usefulness,  and  happiness.  The  horizon  of 
our  knowledge,  as  well  as  our  faculty  of  know- 
ing, may  be  ever  widening,  the  intensity  of  our 
virtuous  feeling  and  purpose  may  be  ever  deepen- 
ing, the  forms  and  measures  of  our  usefulness  may 
be  ever  multiplying,  and  so  the  roots  of  our  hap- 
piness may  be  ever  striking  deeper  and  spreading 
farther  and  lavino^  hold  on  new  sources  of  nour- 
ishment.  Such  a  nature  is  largely  wasted  unless 
there  is  an  immortality  for  it.  What  is  the  use  of 
our  having  the  wings  of  an  eagle  if  we  are  to  lead 
the  life  of  a  wren?  Why  should  our  Maker  fur- 
nish us  with  the  exchequer  of  a  prince  to  meet 


l8o  UNIVERSAL  3EI.IEFS. 

the  expenses  of  a  peasant — give  his  travellers  an 
outfit  large  enough  to  carry  them  to  a  fixed  star 
when  they  are  only  going  a  single  mile  from 
home  ?  Able  to  conceive  of  a  life  without  end, 
hungering  and  thirsting  for  such  a  life,  and  con- 
scious of  faculties  that  cannot  be  fully  fruited  and 
utilized  in  anything  short  of  an  immortality — 
why,  the  very  laws  of  nature,  as  well  as  the  divine 
character,  warrant  us  in  expecting  an  immortal- 
ity. Even  human  workmen  strive  for  congruity. 
They  are  not  in  the  habit  of  making  men  of  war 
to  navigate  creeks,  nor  a  child's  suit  of  clothes 
large  enough  for  Goliath  of  Gath.  Neither  does 
God  make  human  nature  vastly  larger  than  the 
sphere  it  was  meant  to  fill.  He  does  not  endow 
us  with  capacities  for  which  he  provides  no  suit- 
able field  of  action.  This  would  be  waste.  This 
would  be  folly.  Nay,  would  not  this  be  wicked- 
ness ?  For,  would  it  not  be  trifling  with  our  hap- 
piness to  give  us  a  mighty  longing  and  capacity 
for  a  good  we  are  never  to  have;  to  raise  within 
us,  by  the  very  greatness  of  our  natures,  delicious 
hopes  which  are  never  to  be  gratified  ?  God  for- 
bid that  we  should  think  he  would  do  what  would 
be  cruel  in  a  man. 

"  Say,  why  was  man  so  eminently  raised 
Amid  the  vast  creation,  why  ordained 
Through  life  and  death  to  dart  his  piercing  eye, 


IMxMORTAI.   SOULS.  l8l 

With  thoughts  beyond  the  Hmits  of  his  frame, 

But  that  the  Omnipotent  might  send  him  forth, 

In  sight  of  mortal  and  immortal  powers, 

As  on  a  boimdless  theatre,  to  run 

The  great  career  of  justice,  to  exalt 

His  generous  aim  to  all  diviner  deeds. 

To  hold  his  course  unfaltering  up  the  long  ascent 

Of  endless  life  beneath  the  applauding  smile 

Of  the  Eternal  Father?" 

And  many  scientific  facts  conspire  to  show  that 
what  it  would  be  cruel  for  God  to  do  he  has  not 
done.  Through  all  the  round  of  nature  there 
does  not  exist  a  class  of  beings,  animate  or  inani- 
mate, with  a  constitutional  appetite  and  fitness 
for  what  cannot  be  had.  There  is  nowhere  a  class 
of  things  whose  needs  do  not,  in  the  eye  of  science, 
bespeak  the  existence  or  attainableness  of  that 
which  will  meet  the  need.  An  anatomist  in  find- 
ing a  bone  practically  finds  the  entire  animal  to 
which  it  belonged,  also  its  environment  when  liv- 
ing. On  what  principle  ?  On  the  observed  prin- 
ciple that  it  is  the  habit  of  nature  to  put  within 
reach  of  each  great  family  belonging  to  her  do- 
main all  the  circumstances  needed  to  utilize  its 
powers.  It  may  not  be  easy  in  all  cases  to  lay 
hold  of  what  is  needed;  individuals  may  suffer; 
but  that  an  entire  class  of  beings  should  have 
from  age  to  age  an  unconquerable  and  unabated 
.  craving  and  fitness  for  what  cannot  be  had  is  not 
only  incredible  to  one  who  believes  in  a  wise  God, 


1 82  UXIVERSAI.   BELIEFS. 

but  also  to  one  who  listens  to  the  natural  scien- 
ces. These  tell  us  that  God  is  not  one  to  throw 
himself  away;  that  he  as  well  as  man  has  his 
economies  and  gathers  up  "the  fragments,  that 
nothing  be  lost;"  that  even  as  trees  capable  of 
bearing  ripe  fruit  do  not  always  stop  at  buds  or 
blossoms,  so  men  capable  of  an  endless  career  of 
ever-improving  intellectual  and  moral  fruitfulness 
do  not  always  stop  at  such  mere  beginnings  of 
things  as  our  present  life  only  allows.  Our  sea- 
son here  is  too  short  to  ripen  us.  Nothing  short 
of  the  Aiimis  Mirabilis  of  an  immortality  suffices 
for  that.  And  this,  therefore,  is  what  we  shall 
have. 

We  have  seen  that  materialists,  and  all  who 
say  that  death  ends  all,  are  in  a  wonderfully  small 
minority.  Nay,  we  have  seen  that  all  who,  what- 
ever they  say,  live  as  though  death  ends  all,  are 
condemned  by  the  voice  of  mankind.  According 
to  that  voice,  this  present  life  of  ours  is  but  an 
insignificant  part  of  our  whole  life;  merely  a  be- 
ginning of  that  which  is  wholly  unmeasured  and 
immeasurable;  merely  a  mathematical  point  in 
the  total  outspread  of  infinite  space.  And  yet,  it 
is  plain  to  see,  many  human  lives  are  not  in  har- 
mony with  these  views.  Such  lives  are  by  no 
means  fossils,  dug  up  at  great  intervals  from  be- 
neath the  strata  of  long-departed  ages,  and  won- 


IMMORTAL   SOULS.  183 

dered  at  in  museums  as  specimens  of  a  long  extinct 
species.  They  swarm  all  over  the  present  surface 
of  the  world.  Open  your  eyes  on  society  almost 
anywhere  and  you  will  find  them.  Perhaps  you 
need  not  look  farther  than  your  own  worldly  and 
careless  self,  O  reader,  to  find  a  large  specimen — 
a  large  specimen  of  the  many  people  who  live  as 
if  the  time  now  passing,  with  its  eating  and  drink- 
ing, its  money-getting  and  honor-getting,  its  busi- 
ness and  pleasures,  its  frivolities  and  fashions,  is 
their  main  chance,  not  to  say  their  only  one. 
Are  you  not  of  that  tremendous  majority  w^ho  con- 
cede that  there  is  an  everlasting  future  before  you  ? 
Then  why  live  so  ?  Why  live  self-condemned, 
and  condemned  from  zenith  to  nadir  and  from 
east  to  west  of  all  the  religions  and  traditions  and 
nations  ? 

"  Oh,  what  a  patrimony  this  !  a  being 
Of  such  inherent  strength  and  majesty 
Not  worlds  possessed  can  raise  it,  worlds  destroyed 
Not  injure,  which  holds  on  its  glorious  course 
When  thine,  O  nature,  ends." 


VIM.   LIMITED  PROBATION. 


Ael  6e  fjdri  -kots  aloBea^ai  on  opog  hari  aoi  ireptyeypa/ievoc  tov  xpovov, 
0),  euv  Etc  TO  fiTj  cnraiSptdaai  XPWV^  oixv<^£raL,  koL  oixi/or},  Kai  avOtg  ova 
V^ETai.  MARCUS  AURELIUS. 

Thou  must  at  last  perceive  that  a  term  of  life  is  allotted 
to  thee,  which,  if  thou  dost  not  use  for  clearing  away  the 
clouds  from  thy  mind,  it  will  go  and  thou  wilt  go,  and  it  will 
not  come  again. 


'On  QavovTuv  (j,ev  ivQdS'  avrik'  iLiralaii  evet  (ppeveg  iroivug  enaav. 

PINDAR. 

That  the  guilty  souls  of  those  who  die  here  at  once  suf- 
fer punishment. 


For  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  the  things  done  in  his 
body,  according  to  that  he  hath  done.  st.  paul. 


LIMITED    PROBATION.  187 


VIII.  LIMITED  PROBATION. 

The  Bible  teaches  that  men  are  praiseworthy 
and  blameworthy  beings,  and  that,  sooner  or  la- 
ter, they  are  brought  to  account  by  God  for  their 
characters  and  conduct.  From  Genesis  to  Reve- 
lation this  is  the  doctrine  that  underlies  the  Book. 
God  is  indignant  at  certain  styles  of  behavior, 
denounces  them,  threatens  them,  chastises  and 
punishes  them.  On  the  other  hand,  he  loves  and 
commends  certain  other  ways  of  living,  and  en- 
courages to  them  with  promises  and  rewards. 
While  his  sceptre  is  recognized  as  in  some  way 
powerfully  touching  every  event,  the  doctrine  of 
necessity  and  fatalism,  as  applied  to  the  human 
will,  is  everywhere  quietly  ignored  or  trampled  on. 
"Will  ye  steal,  murder,  and  commit  adultery,  and 
swear  falsely,  and  burn  incense  unto  Baal,  and 
walk  after  other  gods  whom  ye  know  not,  and 
come  and  stand  before  me  in  this  house  which  is 
called  by  my  name,  and  say,  We  are  delivered  to 
do  all  these  abominations  ?"  "  Who  will  render  to 
every  man  according  to  his  works — to  them  who 
do  not  obey  the  truth,  but  obey  unrighteousness, 
indignation  and  wrath,  tribulation  and  anguish, 


lS8  UXIVERSAI.   BELIEFS. 

Upon  every  soul  of  man  that  doetli  evil,  of  the 
Jew  first,  and  also  of  the  Gentile;  but  glory,  hon- 
or, and  peace  to  every  man  that  worketh  good, 
to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the  Gentile.  For 
there  is  no  respect  of  persons  with  God."  From 
him  who  handles  the  sceptre  to  him  who  handles 
the  spade,  from  him  who  handles  the  Bible  to 
him  who  handles  merely  the  law  that  is  written 
in  his  heart,  "every  man  shall  give  account  of 
himself  to  God." 

So  runs  our  Bible.  And  so,  too,  run  all  the 
bibles  of  the  world,  without  exception.  Whether 
Koran  or  Avesta  or  Veda  or  Tripitaka  or  The 
Kings  or  the  Book  of  Mormon,  it  tells  of  certain 
things  which  men  are  bound  to  do,  also  of  certain 
things  which  they  are  bound  not  to  do,  and  gives 
notice  of  rewards  and  punishments  in  this  life  or 
another  according  as  men  treat  the  sacred  teach- 
ing. These  books  differ  greatly  among  them- 
selves as  to  the  things  required  or  forbidden,  but 
there  is  not  among  them  all  one  that  does  not  rec- 
ognize abundantly  the  reality  of  moral  distinc- 
tions— that  some  things  are  right  and  other  things 
wrong,  some  things  praiseworthy  and  other  things 
blameworthy;  and  that  men  must  expect  to  enjoy 
or  suffer,  sooner  or  later,  according  as  they  be- 
have. The  old  Egyptian  "Book  of  the  Dead" 
summoned  every  man  at  death  into  the  presence 


LIMITED   PROBATION.  189 

of  a  divine  judge  to  answer  for  his  conduct  in  this 
world.  The  Koran  says  that  a  strict  "judgment- 
day  at  the  end  of  the  world  awaits  all  men ;  every 
action  and  word  and  thought  will  be  weighed  and 
get  its  due."  The  Avesta  also  says  that  "there 
will  be  at  the  end  of  the  world  a  general  resurrec- 
tion and  judgment,  and  that  a  just  retribution  will 
be  rendered  to  men  according  to  their  works ;  that 
the  angel  of  darkness,  with  his  followers,  will  be 
consigned  to  a  place  of  everlasting  darkness  and 
punishment,  and  the  angel  of  light,  with  his  fol- 
lowers, introduced  into  a  state  of  everlastins;  licrht 
and  happiness."  And  the  Parsee  of  to-day,  fol- 
lowing the  ancient  Zoroastrian  faith,  says,  "I  am 
wholly  without  doubt  in  the  coming  of  the  resur- 
rection, in  the  stepping  over  the  bridge  Chinvat, 
in  an  invariable  recompense  of  good  deeds  and 
their  reward  and  of  bad  deeds  and  their  punish- 
ment." As  to  Brahminism,  "its  sacred  writings 
represent  the  w^hole  universe  as  an  august  theatre 
for  the  probationary  exertions  of  beings  who  are 
supposed  to  be  so  many  spirits  degraded  from  high 
places  and  condemned  to  ascend  through  various 
gradations  of  toil  and  suffering  to  that  exalted 
sphere  of  perfection  and  happiness  which  they 
enjoyed  before  their  defection."  The  Buddhist 
Bedagat  and  Tripitaka  declare  that  "the  condi- 
tion of  creatures  on  earth  is  regulated  by  works  of 


190  univp:rsal  beliefs. 

merit  and  demerit.  The  lowest  state  of  existence 
is  in  hell;  the  next  is  that  in  the  form  of  brutes; 
both  these  are  states  of  punishment.  The  next 
ascent  is  to  that  of  man,  which  is  probationary. 
The  next  includes  many  degrees  of  honor  and  hap- 
piness up  to  demigods  and  gods,  which  are  states 
of  reward  for  works  of  merit.  Merit  consists  in 
avoiding  sins  and  performing  virtues,  and  the  de- 
gree of  it  is  the  sole  hope  of  the  Buddhist. "  "  The 
Kings"  of  Confucius  tells  us  that  "Deity  is  of 
such  boundless  goodness  and  justice  that  he  can 
let  no  virtue  go  unrewarded  or  vice  unpunished." 
As  to  those  poems,  oracles,  traditions,  and  priestly 
teachings  which  among  the  Greeks,  Romans,  As- 
syrians, and  others,  have  taken  the  place  of  sacred 
books,  they  all  tell  of  Elysian  Fields  in  the  next 
life  for  the  good  men  of  this,  and  a  Tartarus  of 
penalty  for  the  bad,  as  well  as  of  current  divine 
rewards  and  penalties.  Park,  after  his  extensive 
travels  in  the  interior  of  Africa,  wrote,  "I  have 
conversed  with  all  ranks  and  conditions  on  the 
subject  of  their  faith,  and  can  pronounce,  without 
the  smallest  shade  of  doubt,  that  the  belief  of  one 
God  and  of  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments is  entire  and  universal  among  them." 

It  sometimes  happens  that  the  sacred  books 
and  traditions  of  a  nation  do  not  harmonize  with 
its  actual  conduct  and  practical  convictions.    The 


LIMITED   PROBATION.  I9I 

people  and  tlieir  canon  have  somehow  drifted 
apart.  The  lips  say  one  thing  and  the  hands  do 
another.  The  old  words  are  still  bowed  down  to, 
but  the  old  meanings  have  fallen  out  of  them. 
Strange  liberties  of  interpretation  are  taken;  the- 
ories of  inspiration,  elastic  enough  to  accommo- 
date the  wishes  and  whims  of  everybody,  are 
adopted.  Too  often  the  bulk  of  what  is  called  a 
Christian  nation  neither  think  nor  act  like  Chris- 
tians. The  flag  aloft  has  a  cross  on  it,  but  pirates 
sail  beneath.  The  uniform  is  all  right,  but  the 
soldier  within  is  all  wrong.  Conduct  is  very  apt 
to  belie  theory.  Even  profound  convictions  go 
one  way,  the  heart  and  life  another.  One  may 
believe  in  temperance  with  all  his  might  and  still 
be  a  drunkard  and  a  glutton;  may  argue  for  the- 
ism sincerely  and  powerfully  and  yet  live  as  if 
there  were  no  God;  may  admire  Abdiel  and  yet 
act  like  Satan ;  may  stoutly  deny  the  existence 
of  matter  and  yet  flinch  from  a  sword  or  a  cannon 
ball  as  quickly  as  other  people.  So  the  nations, 
it  is  conceivable,  might  accept  the  doctrine  of 
their  sacred  books  as  to  human  responsibility  and 
yet  their  actual  practice  proceed  on  a  different 
principle. 

But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  does  not.  It  al- 
ways proceeds  on  the  principle  that  men  may 
justly  be  held  to  account  for  their  conduct.     If 


192  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

actions  ever  speak  louder  than  words,  they  do  just 
here.  Parents  so  speak  in  their  treatment  of  their 
children.  Teachers  so  speak  in  their  treatment  of 
their  pupils.  Public  opinion  so  speaks  when  it 
smiles  on  the  conduct  of  one  man  and  frowns  on 
that  of  another.  The  laws,  judges,  prisons,  pen- 
alties of  many  sorts  of  which  no  land  beneath  the 
sun  has  ever  had  lack,  all  say  with  tremendous 
vocal  unity  not  merely  that  man  may  be  justly 
rewarded  and  punished,  but  that  he  will  be  and 
micst  be.  The  well-being  of  society  demands  it. 
Its  very  existence  is  staked  upon  it.  So,  from 
prince  to  peasant  and  from  philosopher  to  child, 
every  one  treats  his  neighbor  as  praiseworthy  or 
blameworthy,  and  in  one  way  or  another,  in  one 
degree  or  another,  rewards  or  punishes  him  for  his 
conduct.  But  who  shall  bring  the  sceptre-bearers 
themselves  to  account  ?  Who  shall  retribute  both 
autocrats  and  democrats  for  hidden  things;  nay, 
for  a  whole  world  of  moral  thought  and  feeling 
which  human  eyes  cannot  reach,  but  where  lie 
the  seeds  and  roots  .and  fountains  and  essence  of 
all  outward  virtues  and  vices,  and  where  is  the 
most  hopeful  field  for  the  workings  of  a  sense  of 
responsibility?  All  nations  have  an  answer  ready. 
They  all  bid  us  look  to  another  life  where  are  set 
thrones  of  judgment  higher  than  Kaiser's  or 
Char's.     Whether  supposed  to  be  located  in  the 


UMITED    PROBATION.  193 

bowels  of  the  earth  or  in  the  regions  of  the  air; 
whether  sculptured  on  the  tombs  of  old  Egypt  or 
on  the  still  more  enduring  classics  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  or,  as  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  on 
the  creeds  of  Eastern  Asia;  whether  occupied  by 
Minos,  or  by  Osiris  with  his  forty-two  adjutants, 
or  by  cuneiform  Belus,  or  by  good  Ormuzd,  or  by 
triple  Brahm,  or  by  Fate  blindly  equivalent  to 
deity,  or  by  Mohammedan  Allah,  or  by  Hebrew 
Yahveh,  or  by  the  Christian  Son  of  God— these 
thrones  mean  a  judgment -day  for  the  whole 
world,  in  which  all  men  shall  find  themselves 
conditioned  for  the  next  life  according  to  conduct 
in  this. 

In  no  case  have  we  yet  found,  in  all  our  ob- 
servation, any  person  who  is  not  consciously  in 
the  habit  of  praising  and  blaming  himself  as  well 
as  other  people;  who  does  not  feel  driven  to  do  so 
by  the  sentiment  of  justice,  by  the  laws  of  his 
being,  and  by  the  very  constitution  and  needs  of 
society.  Evidently  it  has  always  been  so,  for  we 
not  only  find  all  the  earliest  books  full  of  direct 
and  indirect  acknowledgments  of  guilt,  but  we 
find  such  acknowledgments  freely  sculptured  on 
the  earliest  Egyptian  monuments  and  on  the 
Assyrian  slabs  in  the  British  Museum  with  their 
penitential  psalms  and  hymns  in  primitive  cunei- 
form.    Thus, 

tJiiivorsal  BeUe'B.  J^ 


194  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

"  O  my  Lord  !  my  sins  are  many,  my  trespasses  are  great, 
And  the  wrath  of  the  gods  has  plagued  me  with  disease. 
O  Lord,  do  not  abandon  thy  servant; 
The  sins  he  has  done  turn  thou  to  righteousness !" 

Nor  have  we  ever  found  a  person  who  did  not, 
sooner  or  later,  in  one  way  or  another,  after  one 
measure  or  another,  treat  the  people  who  come 
within  the  range  of  his  dealing  according  to  his 
view  of  their  deserts.  Especially  we  have  never 
yet  met  a  person  holding  to  those  about  him  a  re- 
lation of  superiority  and  independence,  and  so  free 
to  act  himself  out,  who  did  not  hold  them  to  ac- 
count, rewarding  them  with  more  or  less  tokens 
of  his  approbation  or  punishing  them  with  more 
or  less  tokens  of  his  displeasure — all  in  proportion 
to  the  degree  of  his  superiority  and  right  to  con- 
trol their  conduct.  If  he  is  a  father,  especially  if 
he  is  a  wise  one,  he  treats  his  children  somewhat 
according  as  they  behave,  visiting  transgressions 
with  the  rod  or  its  equivalent  and  marking  his 
approbation  of  good  conduct  by  suitable  favors. 
If  he  is  a  teacher,  he  makes  a  visible  discrimina- 
tion, and  feels  that  he  must  do  so,  between  those 
scholars  who  are  diligent  and  orderly  and  those  of 
the  opposite  stamp;  turning  looks  of  pleasure  on 
the  one  class  and  of  displeasure  on  the  other, 
speaking  words  of  commendation  and  honor  for 
the  one  class  and  of  reproof  and  dishonor  for  the 


LIMITED  PROBATION.  195 

other,  giving  rewards  of  merit  to  the  one  class 
and  meting  out  deprivations  and  painful  experi- 
ences of  various  kinds  to  the  other.  If  he  is  an 
employer,  his  workmen  will,  in  time,  be  sure  to 
find  out  from  his  way  of  treating  them  whether 
he  is  satisfied  or  dissatisfied  with  them.  Some  will 
get  commended,  trusted  more  and  more,  advanced 
to  higher  wages  and  higher  duties,  while  others 
will  get  hard  words,  harder  looks,  and,  perhaps 
hardest  of  all,  a  final  discharge  without  recom- 
mendation. If  he  is  a  civil  ruler,  say  an  absolute 
monarch,  he  will  have  to  find  out  ways  of  making 
himself  feared  by  law-breakers  and  loved  by  law- 
keepers  or  he  will  soon  cease  to  be  a  monarch. 
He  must  have  arrests,  trials,  convictions,  impris- 
onments, and  perhaps  hangings  on  the  one  hand, 
and,  on  the  other,  protections,  immunities,  encour- 
agements, rewards,  emoluments,  offices,  honors, 
decorations  for  good  citizens.  In  short,  wher- 
ever we  find  a  superior,  especially  one  of  great 
independence,  there  we  find  the  inferiors  belongs 
ing  to  his  sphere  held  by  him  to  some  account  for 
their  conduct.  He  has,  under  milder  names  per- 
haps, real  penalties  and  rewards  to  signify  his 
pleasure  and  displeasure,  to  encourage  and  dis- 
courage, to  secure  the  things  he  wants  and  to  pre- 
vent the  things  he  does  not  want. 

Now  God  is  such  a  superior.     He  is  father, 


196  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

teacher,  employer,  monarch,  all  in  one.  He  is 
above  all,  beyond  calculation  above  all  —  so  far 
above  us  as  to  be  totally  independent  of  us;  free 
to  act  himself  out  towards  all  points  of  the  com- 
pass without  incurring  damage  or  danger  from 
any  quarter.  We  fall  within  his  sphere,  his  range, 
his  beat;  as  all  men  confess  in  the  worship  they 
pay  to  the  supreme  God,  in  the  prayer  they  ad- 
dress to  him,  in  the  message  they  think  to  have 
come  from  him.  We  are  his  wards,  his  children, 
his  scholars,  his  employes,  his  subjects.  He  has 
his  preferences  as  to  our  conduct,  has  informed  us 
of  them,  wdll  naturally  take  appropriate  means  to 
secure  conformity  to  them.  What  are  such  means 
if  not  some  form  of  reward  or  penalty  ?  Is  God 
the  supreme,  of  all  the  superiors  whom  we  happen 
to  know  the  only  one  who  does  not  hold  his  sub- 
ordinates to  account  ?  Why  should  we  think  him 
a  solitary  exception  ?  When  ^ve  have  found  a 
throne  of  judgment  set  up  in  every  other  chief- 
dom  (a  throne  ever  enlarging  as  the  chiefdoms 
enlarge),  from  the  pettiest  to  the  mightiest,  shall 
we  venture  to  say  that  it  is  scientific  and  reason- 
able to  allow^  no  force  to  the  induction,  and  expect 
to  find  no  great  white  throne  whatever  in  that 
mightiest  chiefdom  of  all  in  which  presides  the 
King  eternal,  imm.ortal,  invisible?  It  is  not  cred- 
ible.    We  ought  rather  to  expect  to  find  there  a 


LIMITED    PROBATION.  I97 

throne  of  judgment  whose  awards  are  as  much 
ampler  for  both  merit  and  demerit  as  the  empire 
of  God  is  ampler  than  the  petty  chiefdoms  of  this 
world.  For  so  runs  the  analogy.  The  greater 
the  sovereignty  the  greater  its  system  of  penalties 
and  rewards. 

Not  only  do  all  nations  consent  to  the  reality 
of  moral  distinctions,  to  the  actual  vast  guilt  of 
the  race,  and  to  retribution  for  moral  conduct, 
sooner  or  later,  by  a  divine  Power;  but  they  also 
agree  that,  in  respect  to  retributions,  the  present 
life  is  a  probation  for  the  next — that  our  state  im- 
mediately succeeding  death  is  determined  for  good 
or  ill  by  our  conduct  in  the  present  life.  The 
Oriental  nations,  believing  in  the  transmigration 
of  souls,  have  immemorially  held  that  one's  posi- 
tion in  each  of  his  many  lives  is  determined  by 
his  behavior  in  the  life  immediately  preceding. 
They  have  even  held  that  his  behavior  here, 
through  heredity  and  other  causes,  may  determine 
his  condition  for  weal  or  woe  through  many  lives 
and  ages.  But  all  the  other  large  peoples  best 
known  to  us,  especially  the  more  advanced  of 
them,  have  regarded  the  present  life  not  only  as  a 
probation  for  the  next,  but  as  a  probation  for  an 
endless  next.  Thus  sings  an  old  Assyrian  cylin- 
der, as  deciphered  in  Sayce's  "Records  of  the 
Past:" 


198  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

"  After  the  life  of  these  days 
In  the  feasts  of  the  silver  mountain, 
The  abode  of  blessedness, 
And  in  the  light  of  the  happy  fields, 
IVLay  he  dwell  a  life  eternal,  holy. 
In  the  presence  of  the  gods  !" 

In  no  case  is  anything  said  about  an  end  to 
the  state  next  after  death,  nor  about  an  end  to  the 
rewards  and  punishments  that  introduce  it.  They 
are  never  spoken  of  as  temporary;  they  are  often 
spoken  of  as  everlasting.  We  never  hear  of  re- 
prieves for  the  bad  nor  of  reverses  for  the  good, 
but  we  are  often  assured  that  we  have  passed  into 
the  realm  of  perpetual  congelation.  The  eschatol- 
ogy  everywhere  contemplates  permanency.  The 
whole  great  future  spreads  out  before  us  as  a 
boundless  petrifaction.  Especially  pronounced 
were  these  views  among  the  ancient  Greeks  and 
Romans.  Whether  from  the  bright  fields  of  Elys- 
ium or  from  the  gloomy  shades  of  Tartarus,  no 
transfers  were  ever  supposed  to  be  made.  As  the 
life  of  retribution  begins,  so  it  continues  ever- 
more. Both  destiny  and  character  are  fixed.  Sisy- 
phus rolls  his  stone  eternally.  Dido  preserves  the 
"  eternal  wound  under  her  breast."  To  the  best 
part  of  the  ancient  world  the  future  state  seemed 
like  the  head  of  Medusa;  all  persons  coming  into 
its  presence  are  turned  into  stone. 

Like  views  on  this  subject  have  been  drawn 


tlMlTED   PROBATION.  1 99 

from  their  sacred  books  by  Mohammedans  and 
Christians.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  these  have  sup- 
posed themselves  taught  of  God  that  unless  a  man 
does  certain  things  in  this  life  he  will  be  undone 
for  ever.  Creeds  differ  as  to  what  these  destruc- 
tive things  are.  The  Jews  have  their  ideas.  The 
Moslems  say  that  at  least  idolatry  and  unbelief 
are  fatal.  Indeed,  the  crowded  millions  of  the 
remoter  East  (according  to  Sir  Monier  Williams, 
Professor  of  Sanscrit  in  the  University  of  Oxford 
and  one  of  the  highest  authorities  in  Oriental 
matters)  all  say  through  their  sacred  books, 
*' Multiply  your  prayers,  your  penances,  your  pil- 
o-rimao-es,  vour  ceremonies,  your  external  rites  of 
all  kinds,  for  nothing  else  can  save  you  from  eter- 
nal ruin."  As  to  Christians,  by  overwhelming 
majorities  they  declare  that  final  ruin  will  over- 
take all  who  do  not  repent  of  their  sins  in  this 
life.  All  the  great  churches,  all  the  great  denom- 
inations and  confessions,  have  one  voice  in  the 
matter;  and  this  voice  is  but  an  echo  of  that 
which  has  been  resounding  throagh  all  the  Chris- 
tian history.  All  the  fathers,  except  two  or  three 
in  the  Alexandrian  school,  held  that  probation 
for  all  men  permanently  closes  with  this  life.  So 
jdid  the  Waldenses.  With  scarcely  an  exception 
so  did  Christians  of  every  name  down  through 
the   Middle  Ages.     Dante  expressed  the  practi- 


200  UNIVERSAL    BELIEFS. 

cally  universal  sentiment  of  his  own  and  prece- 
ding times  when  he  wrote  over  the  infernal  gate, 
"Leave  all  hope  behind,  ye  who  enter  here." 

' '  The  modern  church  has  accepted  the  tradi- 
tional faith  on  this  subject.  In  proportion  as  the 
inspiration  and  infallibility  of  revelation  have 
been  conceded,  the  doctrine  of  an  absolute,  and 
therefore  endless,  punishment  of  sin  has  main- 
tained itself,  it  being  impossible  to  eliminate  the 
tenet  from  the  Christian  Scriptures  except  by  a 
mutilation  of  the  canon  or  a  violently  capricious 
exegesis.  The  denial  of  the  eternity  of  future 
punishment  in  modern  times  has  consequently 
been  a  characteristic  of  parties  and  individuals 
who  have  rejected,  either  partially  or  entirely, 
the  dogma  of  infallible  inspiration." 

All  broad  and  impetuous  Amazons  are  natu- 
rally supposed  to  have  abundant  sources  in  high 
places.  We  could  almost  be  sure  that  the  mighty 
faith  that  comes  down  upon  us  w^ith  such  volume 
and  force  from  the  first  Christian  ages  must  be 
very  clearly  and  abundantly  taught  in  the  Bible. 
And  so  it  is,  so  clearly  and  abundantly  that  \yq 
wonder  that  there  should  be  any  persons  what- 
ever, professing  faith  in  the  Bible,  to  claim  that 
our  probation  extends  beyond  the  present  life.  A 
judgment  at  the  end  of  the  world  "according  to 
the  deeds  done  in  the  body,"  the  wicked  going 


I^IMITED    PROBATION.  20I 

away  into  a  punishment  as  everlasting  as  the  re- 
wards of  the  righteous — such  pictures  backed  by 
such  parables  as  that  of  Lazarus  and  the  rich 
man,  with  its  impassable  gulf,  and  supported  on 
either  hand  by  an  army  of  warnings  to  seek  the 
Ivord  while  he  may  be  found,  all  thrown  without 
qualification  in  the  midst  of  Jews  and  Gentiles 
immemorially  holding  that  our  endless  future  is 
decided  by  our  present  life,  admit  of  but  one  inter- 
pretation. The  primitive  Christian  teachers  must 
have  known  perfectly  well  that  they  would  be  un- 
derstood as  indorsing  the  current  belief,  and  must 
have  meant  to  be  so  understood.  They  meant  to 
say  that  mankind  in  every  age  had  been  right  in 
thinking  that  their  only  opportunity  for  securing 
a  happy  immortality  lies  within  the  bounds  of 
the  present  life.  So  they  have  always  been  un- 
derstood to  mean  by  the  great  body  of  interpret- 
ers. Men  who  believe  in  an  infallible  Scripture 
will  have  to  say  that  just  as  the  wintry  breath  of 
the  Arctic  circle  stings  instantaneously  into  mar- 
ble all  tears,  whether  of  sorrow  or  joy,  so  all  the 
joyful  and  sorrowful  retributions  of  the  next  state 
at  once  congeal  into  permanency  as  soon  as  they 
feel  on  them  the  icy  breath  of  the  Everlasting. 

We  do  not  suppose  that  this  doctrine  was  orig- 
inally built  up  in  any  part  of  the  world  on  grounds 
of  mere  reason.      Nor  do  we  think  that  it  can 


202  UNIVERSAL   EEUEKS. 

now  be  fully  sustained  on  such  grounds.  It  came 
by  revelation,  and  by  revelation  it  stands.  At  the 
same  time  there  are  not  a  few  considerations  that 
agree  in  preparing  the  way  for  it.  They  face  it, 
they  point  towards  it,  they  conduct  in  that  direc- 
tion, they  ask,  IV/ij/  not  ?  Does  one  say  that  it  is 
not  pleasant  to  think  that  our  immortality  may 
be  ruined  by  our  misconduct  for  a  few  years? 
Certainly  not;  but  then,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is 
pleasant  to  think  that  our  immortality  may  be 
saved  by  a  right  course  for  only  a  few  years. 
''Keep  up  heart,  O  struggling  good  man!  It  is 
but  a  short  struggle,  and  then  all  peril  will  be 
over  for  ever.  Ca/isf  thou  not  watch  with  me  one 
hoiirV^  But,  were  the  doctrine  all  unpleasant- 
ness, what  has  that  to  do  with  its  credibility? 
Are  unpleasant  things  never  true?  Are  bad 
tidings  always  false?  Death  is  actual.  Sin  is 
actual.  So  are  many  other  terrible  disasters,  pri- 
vate and  public,  from  that  w^hich  desolates  an 
individual  to  that  which  desolates  a  world.  Does 
it  seem  to  you  that  God  could  not  consistently 
with  righteousness,  much  more  with  benevolence, 
condition  our  whole  wealthy  future  on  our  con- 
duct during  so  brief  a  life  as  this  ?  To  this  we 
answer:  What  if  he  should  say  that,  much  as  he 
could  desire  to  avoid  the  peril  to  men  of  such  an 
order  of  things,  he  cannot  do  it  ?     The  nature  of 


LIMITED    PROBATION.  203 

tilings  is  such,  and  the  exigencies  of  an  infinite 
administration  are  such,  that  he  cannot  wisely  do 
without  such  beings  as  men,  or  omit  to  give  them 
such  a  momentous  probation.  He  would  gladly 
insure  the  endless  goodness  and  felicity  of  all;  for 
this  purpose  he  has  done  and  will  do  all  that  wis- 
dom and  power  can  do;  but  the  situation  is  such 
that  the  final  character  and  destiny  of  men  must 
be  decided  by  themselves  and  decided  in  the  body. 
He  will  touch  all  possible  springs,  he  will  sum- 
mon all  possible  influences,  he  will  lay  himself 
out  to  the  utmost  to  bring  about  a  favorable  de- 
cision. He  will  move  heaven  and  earth  to  do  it. 
All  the  resources  of  a  boundless  compassion  and 
wisdom  shall  be  put  in  requisition ;  but,  after 
all,  it  must  remain  with  men  to  determine  by 
their  conduct  here  what  their  entire  hereafter 
shall  be.  This  is  really  what  the  Bible  says. 
Is  there  a  man  beneath  the  canopy  who  knows 
enough  to  say  that  this  does  not  give  the  real  state 
of  the  case  ?  It  would  require  an  infinite  knowl- 
edge to  say  it,  for  we  have  to  deal  with  an  infinite 
-scheme  of  things  and  one  that  is  infinitely  com- 
plicated— wheel  within  wheel  in  endless  mazes. 

And  then  notice  what  suggestions  of  the  doc- 
trine and,  as  it  were,  flights  of  steps  towards  it,  in 
the  almost  innumerable  probations  about  us.  See 
the  brief  opportunities  of  advantage  that  never  re- 


204  rXIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

turn.  Within  a  few  moments  some  Moses  loses 
finally  the  opportunity  of  entering  the  promised 
land.  Between  two  suns  some  Ksau  loses  his 
birthright  and  finds  no  place  for  repentance 
though  he  seeks  it  carefully  with  tears.  For 
three  days  some  Nineveh  can  avoid  destruction; 
after  this  nothing  can  prevent  it.  For  a  hundred 
and  twenty  years,  while  some  ark  is  being  pre- 
pared, the  long-suffering  of  God  waits  on  some 
sinful  people;  then  the  door  is  shut  and  the  flood 
prevails. 

So  goes  life  throughout.  When  the  poise  of  a 
pillar  or  of  a  person  is  disturbed  there  is  a  certain 
time  during  which  the  disturbance  can  be  cor- 
rected; but  after  the  leaning  has  gone  on  to  a  cer- 
tain point  it  is  sure  to  go  on  to  prostration.  For 
a  short  time  you  can  pull  up  the  young  tree  at 
pleasure;  but  let  it  get  well  rooted,  and  ever  after 
it  will  defy  all  your  tuggings.  To-day  you  can 
make  a  valuable  friend:  the  man  is  at  hand,  an 
influential  introducer  stands  ready  to  do  his  part; 
but  if  you  let  the  opportunity  slip  it  never  comes 
again.  On  a  certain  month  if  a  man  sows  he  will 
be  likely  to  get  a  harvest;  if  he  fails  to  sow  then, 
he  fails  to  reap  ever.  "If  the  disease  had  been 
taken  in  hand  at  the  beginning  it  might  have 
been  cured,  but  now  it  is  too  late" — how  often  do 
we  hear  such  talk  as  this  in  the  case  of  a  cancer 


LIMITED   PROBATION.  205 

or  consumption  or  fever!  How  long  has  he  been 
under  the  water?  If  beyond  a  certain  brief  space, 
it  is  useless  to  attempt  resuscitation.  A  few  mo- 
ments ago  something  might  have  been  done,  but 
now  it  is  too  late.  Give  over  your  efforts  to  make 
the  cold  lungs  play.  Make  ready  for  the  burial. 
In  the  turn  of  a  tide,  or  of  a  hand  even,  many  a 
man  has  improved,  or  lost  for  ever,  the  opportu- 
nity of  making  a  fortune.  We  give  you  five  min- 
utes, not  more,  in  which  to  catch  the  train,  to 
reach  a  shelter  from  the  storm,  to  escape  from  the 
burning  house  or  sinking  ship. 

Such  is  life.  Opportunities  are  perhaps  sel- 
dom boomerangs.  Many  only  just  touch  us  and 
then  disappear  for  ever.  Some,  like  some  com- 
ets, just  flash  once  across  our  system  and  are  never 
heard  of  again.  We  do  not  like  this  state  of  things, 
we  would  fain  not  be  treated  so  cavalierly,  we 
would  be  glad  to  have  opportunities  of  all  good 
sorts  dance  attendance  on  our  convenience  with- 
out limit;  but  we  all  know  from  abundant  expe- 
rience that  they  cannot  be  counted  on  to  do  it. 
They  are  not  our  bond-servants.  They  are  fierce- 
ly independent.  They  insist  on  leaving  us  just 
when  they  please.  They  will  ask  no  permission 
and  will  give  no  notice.  In  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye  they  may  vanish  without  the  formality  of 
leave-taking  and  never  be  seen  again.     Neither 


2o6  UNIVERSAI.   BEUEFS. 

their  coming  nor  their  going  is  by  the  nautical 
ahnanacs  and  observatories.  Suddenly  a  great 
business  opportunity  flashed  up  to  a  man.  Had 
he  clutched  it  promptly  he  would  have  become 
fabulously  wealthy.  He  hesitated.  In  a  moment 
the  yellow- winged  angel  darted  away  and  never 
returned. 

Youth  is  a  probation  for  mature  life.  If  early 
opportunities  for  education  are  neglected  the 
whole  life  will  suffer.  If  our  ways  of  looking  and 
speaking  and  walking,  our  ways  of  thinking  and 
feeling  and  willing,  are  early  formed  amiss,  we 
shall  never  fully  recover  from  the  mischief  Phys- 
ical, mental,  and  moral  habits  strengthen  day  by 
day,  root  themselves  more  and  more,  go  on  to- 
wards invincibility  and  sometimes  seem  to  reach 
it — who  can  say  that  the  point  towards  which  they 
always  tend,  and  which  they  sometimes  seem  to 
reach,  is  never  actually  reached  ?  When  the  Bi- 
ble and  all  bibles  proceed  to  tell  us  that  opportu- 
nities of  salvation  are  limited;  that  character  set- 
tles to  its  final  condition  in  the  present  life;  that 
the  process  of  consolidation  and  crystallization 
which  we  observe  going  on  all  about  us  in  single 
traits  goes  on  in  our  spiritual  being  as  a  whole  till 
it  reaches  complete  fixity  at  or  before  death;  that 
even  as  childhood  often  decides  the  fortunes  of 
youth,  youth  the  fortunes  of  manhood,  and  man- 


LIMITED   PROBATION.  207 

hood  the  fortunes  of  age,  so  our  present  life  de- 
cides the  fortunes  of  the  endless  next — we  by  no 
means  find  ourselves  treading  on  ground  wholly 
new.  It  is  kindred  with  much  that  we  have  long 
been  familiar  with.  The  ground  has  been  graded 
and  terraced  for  us  up  to  that  on  which  the  Bible 
stands. 

In  the  face  of  this  great  consensus,  and  of  the 
consenting  hints  and  prophecies  of  it  to  be  found 
in  the  existing  order  of  the  world,  it  seems  plain 
what  a  prudent  man  would  do.  The  only  safe 
thing  for  him  to  do  is  to  proceed  to  order  his  char- 
acter and  life  on  the  assumption  that  he  is  now 
having  his  only  opportunity  to  secure  a  glorious 
future  after  death.  The  Christian  principles  and 
ways  of  living  are  in  general  abundantly  more 
reasonable  and  satisfactory  than  any  other  scheme 
of  religion  known  to  him ;  a  practical  acceptance 
of  them  will  surely  do  him  no  harm  and  may  do 
him  incalculable  good;  while  a  failure  to  so  accept 
them  will,  according  to  the  general  run  of  tradi- 
tion and  creed  and  popular  belief  the  world  over, 
involve  the  direst  conceivable  disasters.  Under 
such  circumstances  there  is  but  one  course  open 
to  a  reasonable  man.  Let  him  put  himself  with- 
out delay  on  the  safe  side.  It  is  very  safe  to  have 
a  righteous  character,  very  safe  to  live  conscien- 
tiously and  devoutly.     It  is  very  unsafe,  awfully 


2o8  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

unsafe,  to  live  as  though  all  mankind  have  been 
mistaken,  as  though  there  is  no  judgment-seat  to 
be  confronted  when  we  come  to  die,  as  though  we 
are  sure  of  other  opportunities  beyond  the  grave 
for  setting  ourselves  right  with  heaven,  and  all 
for  the  sake  of  living  miserably  a  little  while  in 
wickedness  and  wilfulness. 

We  see  that  the  heathen  who  neglect  to  live 
conscientiously  according  to  the  light  of  nature 
do  it  with  the  full  understanding  that  they  are 
thereby  putting  in  jeopardy  an  immortality.  Con- 
sequently they  are  very  guilty.  One  cannot  neg- 
lect what  he  considers  to  be  the  right  w^ay  of  liv- 
inof,  and  do  it  ao^ainst  an  infinite  motive,  without 
great  guilt.  Do  the  heathen  live  according  to  the 
light  they  have  ?  Are  they  in  general  trying  to 
live  as  they  think  they  ought  ?  This  question  as 
to  a  matter  of  fact  must  be  settled  by  the  testi- 
mony of  the  men  who  knew  them  best,  viz.,  the 
Christian  missionaries  who  have  lived  among 
them  for  years.  These  testify  a  negative.  They 
tell  us  that  the  heathen  are  not  the  innocents 
abroad  that  some  would  have  us  think.  They 
not  only  know  vastly  better  than  they  do,  but  the 
brunt  of  their  character  and  living  is  in  flagrant 
defiance  of  their  own  convictions.  Paul  correctly 
represents  them  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 
They  are   profoundly  depraved  ;    they   are   deep 


LIMITED   PROBATION.  209 

down  in  the  mire  of  wilful  sin;  in  short,  they  are 
religiously  lost  and  need  to  have  stretched  down 
to  them  in  their  profound  pit  a  mighty  uplifting 
hand. 

The  heathen  stand  related  to  the  law  of  nature 
very  much  as  men  do  in  Christian  lands  to  the 
Christian  law.  If  it  is  unjust  to  hold  the  one 
class  everlastingly  responsible  for  not  living  in 
this  world  conscientiously  according  to  the  light 
they  have,  why  is  it  not  unjust  to  hold  the  other 
class  to  a  like  responsibility  for  a  like  misbeha- 
vior ?  It  would  be  hard  to  show,  at  least  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  average  sinner,  that  the  Bible 
stands  out  in  a  more  clear  and  commanding  light 
to  him  than  does  the  law  of  nature  to  most  on 
heathen  ground  ;  hard  to  show  that  the  tempta- 
tions to  transgress  are  less  in  the  one  case  than  in 
the  other.  Multitudes  in  Christian  lands  are  very 
unhappily  circumstanced  for  leading  religious 
lives.  Heredity,  training,  example — in  short, 
.both  nature  and  its  environment — could  hardly 
be  worse.  In  our  cities  multitudes  are  born  to  as 
vast  an  ignorance  of  true  religion  as  afflicts  any 
heathen ;  nay,  they  are  born  and  bred  to  such  pre- 
judices and  hatreds  against  it  as  seldom  trouble 
people  outside  of  Christendom.  There  is  no  pov- 
erty more  abject,  no  fight  for  daily  bread  more 
harassing,  no  misery  of  circumstances  of  any  kind 

Fiiiversal  Belic's.  I^ 


2IO  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

more  torturing,  no  temptations  to  all  that  is  bad 
in  opinions  and  conduct  more  numerous,  various, 
and  mighty  than  may  be  found  any  day  ferment- 
ing amid  a  very  large  part  of  the  crowded  popu- 
lation of  that  colhruics  gentium  which  we  call  New 
York.  It  is  very  much  so  with  the  East  Ends, 
Water  Streets,  Faubourgs  d'Antoineof  most  large 
cities  in  Christian  lands  in  both  hemispheres. 
They  swarm  with  children  so  neglected  by  all 
good  influences  and  so  imbedded  from  their  earli- 
est years  in  the  worst  forms  of  wickedness  and 
wretchedness  that  it  would  be  hard  to  find  on  the 
planet,  or  even  to  conceive  of,  greater  desperate- 
ness  of  unfavorable  relio^ious  conditions.  The 
Christianity  that  is  only  a  few  streets  aw^ay  sends 
no  more  rays  into  the  dense  gloom  than  if  oceans 
rolled  between;  sends  no  more  sweetness  from  her 
scented  robes  into  the  fetid  air  than  if  she  w^ere 
still  dwelling  among  the  stars. 

In  some  respects  the  influences  adverse  to  re- 
ligion in  Christian  lands  are  plainly  greater  than 
in  others.  With  us  the  gospel  is  an  old  story. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  world  of  secular  things  of 
exceeding  novelty  and  interest  is  ever  pressing  in 
at  all  the  doors  and  windows  of  thouo:ht.  The 
daily  paper,  that  fetish  which  asks  and  gets  the 
morning  devotions  of  such  multitudes,  unloads  at 
our  breakfast-table  news  enough  from  all  parts  of 


LIMITED   PROBATION,  211 

the  world,  on  all  sorts  of  subjects — from  political 
and  financial  revolutions  to  the  vilest  domestic 
scandal — to  keep  us  agog  from  morning  to  night. 
Fashion,  society,  the  various  ambitions  of  civili- 
zation, make  great  drafts  on  body  and  mind.  The 
tides  of  business  and  pleasure  and  opinion  swell 
and  sweep  about  us  with  most  distracting  variety 
and  vehemence.  Vast  are  the  rush  and  push  and 
din  and  absorption  of  our  hurrying  lives.  For  to 
us  this  present  world,  as  distinguished  from  the 
next,  is  a  much  fairer  and  grander  thing  than  it 
is  to  an  average  heathen.  Its  prizes  are  larger, 
more  various  and  numerous,  and  more  within  the 
common  reach.  So  the  competition  for  them  is  far 
more  general  and  spirited.  Innumerable  painted 
barks  on  painted  oceans  are  crowding  all  sail 
towards  goals  on  the  horizon  that  glitter  and 
promise  like  rising  suns.  No  such  exciting  re- 
gatta pictures  the  seas  of  heathendom  and  cries, 
"Up,  and  away  to  the  chase,  like  everybody  else  !" 
Nowhere  but  here  do  such  crowds  of  novel  and 
engrossing  secularities  assail  and  capture  the  at- 
tention of  men  and  lock  it  up  in  the  present  and 
material. 

And  then  our  intellectual  temptations  are  pe- 
culiar. Universalism  is  in  the  air.  So  are  ma- 
terialism and  atheism  to  a  great  extent.  The 
infection  is  in  the  heights  as  well  as  in  the  depths. 


212  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

Not  a  few  men,  bestarred  with  accomplishments 
and  honors,  are  undertaking  to  deliver  the  world 
from  superstition  by  delivering  it  from  Deity  and 
doo^ma.  Nowhere  out  of  Christendom  is  there 
the  thousandth  part  so  much  or  so  influential  de- 
nial of  the  supernatural.  Science  itself  is  over- 
ruled to  make  religion  difficult.  The  grossest 
forms  of  radical  unbelief  and  misbelief  speciously 
argue  and  object  and  scoff  on  all  sides.  Meshes 
of  ingenious  sophistry,  such  as  no  pagan  could 
weave,  encounter  every  man  that  ventures  abroad. 
In  short,  nowhere  does  mortal  error  dress  so  well 
or  wear  such  fine  and  taking  manners  as  within 
the  pale  of  Christendom. 

Here  also  sin  as  .well  as  error  gathers  to  itself 
all  the  splendor  and  attractions  of  the  ripest  civ- 
ilization. Hooks  are  richly  baited;  not  seldom 
are  themselves  of  purest  gold.  Wealth,  genius, 
and  art  are  laid  out  profusely  in  embellishing  bad 
courses.  See  how  the  gin-palace  blazes  out  into 
the  night,  and  gorgeous  theatres  summon  pla- 
carded streets  to  sensualism  by  shows  that  have 
laid  under  tribute  the  utmost  of  the  fine  arts,  and 
gambling  bourses  and  "hells"  shame  the  palaces 
of  kings  !  The  decorative  art  among  us  is  not 
confined  to  such  things  as  buildings,  but  works 
with  great  success  to  picture  wickedness  into 
righteousness  as   well    as    falsehood   into   truth. 


LIMITED    PROBATION.  213 

Satan  is  no  longer  a  cannibal,  wearing  horns  and 
hoofs  and  spitting  fire,  but  often  behaves  like  a 
civilized  being,  and,  at  his  best,  is  presentable  in 
any  company— the  more 's  the  pity  and  the  danger! 
London  and  Paris  furnish  more  temptations  to 
wickedness  than  ever  did  the  Fiji  Islands;  better 
know  how  to  prepare  opiates  for  uneasy  con- 
sciences; can  apologize  for  sin  with  more  silvery 
voices  and  ape  better  the  accent  of  truth  as  they 
say  to  the  sinner,  *'  Thou  shalt  not  surely  die." 

But  one  needs  not  to  go  to  our  great  cities,  to 
their  crowded  attics  and  cellars,  to  their  pits  and 
dens  of  ignorance  and  degradation  and  shame,  to 
their  evil-haunted  streets  and  "omnipotent" 
temptations,  to  see  at  what  moral  disadvantage 
millions  of  our  people  are  born  and  live.  He  only 
needs  to  look  at  current  literature— from  the  vi- 
cious trash  that  tempts  our  boys  and  girls  up 
through  the  mass  of  morbid  fiction  that  besets  our 
young  men  and  women,  to  that  most  fictitious  and 
elaborate  and  dangerous  trash  of  all  that  so  often 
in  these  days  assails  riper  and  more  thoughtful 
people  under  the  prodigious  misnomers  of  learn- 
ing and  philosophy  and  science— to  find  ample 
ground  for  saying  that  Christian  lands  have  their 
peculiar  elements  of  religious  difficulty  and  dan- 
ger and  for  doubting  whether  these  disadvantages 
in  multitudes  of  cases  are  not  fully  as  weighty  as 


214  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

any  in  heathen  lands.  The  heathen  have  no  sci- 
ence, falsely  so  called,  to  contend  against.  The 
doctrine  of  evolution  does  not  trouble  them.  They 
have  no  Mills  nor  Huxley  nor  Spencer  nor  Tyn- 
dall,  no  Paine  nor  Colenso  nor  Ingersoll.  The 
very  foundations  of  all  religious  belief  are  not  so 
cunningly  attacked  in  them — are  not  attacked  at 
all.  It  is  only  in  highly  civilized  countries  that 
we  find  elaborate  attempts  to  suppress  or  obscure 
the  very  primary  conceptions  of  faith  and  duty. 
Dahomey  never  produced  an  agnostic.  China 
never  denied  human  responsibility.  Theoretical 
communists,  socialists,  anarchists,  nihilists,  these 
are  the  fungi  of  a  tropical  civilization,  the  repro- 
bate silver  of  a  land  rich  in  the  precious  metals. 
For  laborious  defences  of  all  indefensible  things 
go  to  the  cultured  perverts  of  Germany,  France, 
England,  and  America. 

So  this  is  how  the  case  stands.  Though  the 
moral  disadvantages  in  a  Christian  land  are  to 
some  extent  not  the  same  as  elsewhere,  they  may 
be  just  as  formidable.  They  seem  to  be  so  in 
cases  not  a  few.  For  auo:ht  that  can  be  shown  to 
the  contrary,  millions  among  us  have  quite  as 
much  to  contend  with  in  obeying  the  Christian 
law  as  the  heathen  have  in  obeying  theirs.  And 
as  to  the  laws  themselves,  it  would  be  hard  to 
prove  or  to  see  that  one  has  at  all  the  advantage 


LIMITED   PROBATION.  215 

of  the  other  in  respect  to  clearness  and  authority 
with  its  subjects.  Specially  hard  would  it  be  to 
prove  it  to  a  man  who  is  judging  his  own  case. 
Criminals  are  full  of  excuses  and  extenuations  for 
themselves.  Their  own  circumstances  seem  to 
them  peculiarly  trying.  They  are  always  ready 
at  a  moment's  warning  to  file  bills  of  exceptions 
in  their  own  favor.  If  anybody  is  to  have  the 
benefit  of  reprieves,  commutations,  leniencies,  they 
are  the  persons.  If  a  heathen  should  have  his 
probation  continued  beyond  the  present  life,  so 
should  they.  If  Menes  or  Cecrops  or  Romulus  or 
Wing  Sing  is  at  liberty  to  think  his  earthly  pro- 
bation insufficient,  so  are  they.  This  is  what  they 
will  think.  And  so,  practically,  the  idea  of  a  pro- 
bation continued  indefinitely  beyond  the  present 
life,  under  more  favorable  conditions  than  the 
present,  will  get  accepted  for  all.  The  idea  has 
Universalism  in  its  womb. 


X.  POSSIBLE  SALVATION 


HecpvKaci  re  u'Ttavreq  kol  idla  kol  drj^oaia  &iJ.apTu.veLV. 

THUCYDIDES. 

All,   both  individuals  and  communities,  are  by  nature 
prone  to  sin. 

♦ 

Uphg  d'  ifia  ipvxa  Bapcog  r/GTM 
Geoae/3?)  (pura  Kedva  Ttpu^etv. 

EURIPIDES. 

My  heart  is  confident  that  a  god-fearing  man  will  fare  well. 


MeTavola  koXvcu  tov  teIovq  d(j)avi^ovaa  to  ev  ttj  apxv  ayvorjOev. 

DION.    HALICAR. 

Repentance  causes  the  original  wrong  to  disappear  by 
preventing  its  consequences. 


Whoso  confesseth  and  forsaketh  his  sins  shall  have  mercy 

SOLOMON. 


POSSIBLE   SALVATION.  219 


IX.  POSSIBLE  SALVATION. 

The  Bible  has  much  to  say  of  salvation.  An 
apostle  calls  it  "the  common  salvation."  It  is 
common  not  only  in  the  sense  of  being  designed 
for  all  men  and  offered  to  all,  but  in  the  sense  of 
being  believed  in^  as  to  main  features,  by  mankind 
at  large.  For  example,  they  believe  that  the  best 
salvation  for  man  means  deliverance  from  both 
sin  and  its  penalty;  that  such  a  salvation  is  greatly 
needed;  that  it  can  be  secured;  that  the  conditions 
of  it  are  atonement  and  repentance;  and  that  a  di- 
vine system  of  means  for  securing  it  exists  in  the 
form  of  sacrifices,  revelations,  miracles,  sacred 
days  and  places,  and  priesthoods.  They  also  be- 
lieve this  salvation  to  have  substantially  the  same 
historic  setting. 

According  to  the  Bible,  the  whole  human  race 
has  come  from  a  single  pair  whose  home  was  in 
Asia  near  the  Euphrates.  These  first  parents 
were  not  a  chance  or  natural  product,  whether 
sudden  or  graduated  from  almost  nothing  through 
almost  infinite  ages,  but  were  due  solely  and  di- 
rectly to  divine  agency.  They  were  not  brutes  ; 
neither  were  they  savages,  though  not  acquainted 


220  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

with  the  arts  and  sciences  and  splendid  furniture 
of  our  modern  civilization.  But  they  were  as 
well  equipped,  physically  and  mentally,  for  work- 
ing out  these  splendid  things  as  the  best  modern 
specimen  of  a  man  would  be  were  he  to  quit  com- 
pletely his  hold  on  the  past  and  to  begin  the  world 
anew.  Nay,  better.  Primeval  man  had  angels 
for  companions  and  God  himself  for  instructor. 
His  environment  was  tropical,  fitted  to  bring 
promptly  into  bloom  and  fruit  all  his  powers. 
His  character  was  perfect  and  his  surroundings 
matched  his  character.  He  dwelt  in  a  paradise. 
It  was  a  home  fit  for  a  creature  made  in  the  image 
of  God,  wanting  nothing  that  could  contribute  to 
his  happiness.  And  for  a  time  his  happiness  was 
complete.     The  gold  was  without  dross. 

But  one  hapless  day  the  golden  character  fell, 
and  with  it  the  golden  happiness.  Satan,  the  old 
serpent,  enticed  the  saint  to  become  a  sinner. 
Then  sank  paradise.  Then  sank  the  golden  age. 
Then  sank  human  nature  itself;  sank  so  far  that 
it  became  a  lost  nature,  a  moral  wreck.  New 
generations  came,  but  the  old  wickedness  re- 
mained and  grew.  It  became  awful.  The  heav- 
ens blackened  with  wrath.  The  night  deepened 
into  midnight.  O  Sun,  where  art  thou?  O  Moon 
and  stars,  where  are  ye?  Gone  quite  from  the 
muttering  sky.     Now  it  thunders.      Rain,   rain, 


POSSIBLE   SALVATION.  221 

rain.  Springs  bursting  out  under  every  man's 
foot.  Brooks  turning  to  rivers,  rivers  to  seas,  and 
seas  to  oceans.  See  yonder  last  peak  and,  stand- 
ing on  it,  the  last  man.  The  water  touches  his 
feet,  creeps  up  and  up  till  his  long  hair  lies  along 
the  wave.  Now  he  flino^s  his  arms  aloft  and  is 
gone.  Lo,  the  Deluge  has  swallowed  up  every- 
thing, everything  save  a  single  vessel  containing 
a  single  righteous  family!  Heaven  has  drowned 
the  earth. 

The  single  righteous  family  outrode  the  flood 
and  went  forth  from  its  ark  to  repeople  the  wasted 
world.  They  grew  into  tribes,  tribes  grew  into 
nations — alas,  into  wicked  and  lost  nations.  But 
God  was  placable.  He  could  and  would  forgive 
sin,  provided  certain  conditions  were  met.  An 
expiation  must  be  made.  A  victim  must  die  in 
the  sinner's  stead.  If  then  the  sinner  w^ould 
confess  and  forsake  his  sin  he  should  find  mercy. 
To  help  him  to  this  God  gave  him  revelations, 
miracles.  Sabbaths,  sanctuaries,  ministers  of  reli- 
gion— to  inform  him  of  his  duty,  to  persuade  him 
to  do  it,  to  keep  him  from  lapses  and  to  recover 
him  from  them. 

These  Biblical  accounts  are  well  reflected  in 
the  popular  faith  all  over  the  world.  Sacred 
books  and  oral  traditions  are  generally  to  the 
effect  that  the  race  is  one  in  its  original  locality 


222  UNIVERSAL  BEUEKS. 

and  parentage;  also  that  the  first  hnman  condi- 
tion was  exceedingly  high  and  happy.  Who  has 
not  heard  of  the  Golden  Age  with  which  the  clas- 
sical peoples  prefaced  every  history — a  time  when 
the  gods  dwelt  with  men  and  men  themselves 
were  almost  gods;  when  perpetual  spring  reigned, 
the  lands  flowed  with  milk  and  honey,  all  useful 
and  beautiful  things  were  produced  spontaneous- 
ly, weeds  and  thorns  and  diseases  were  unknown, 
man  was  simple  and  innocent  and  "in  league 
with  the  stones  of  the  field?"  Other  traditions, 
found  fragmentally  imbedded  in  the  faith  and  lit- 
eratures of  almost  all  countries,  piece  themselves 
out  easily  into  the  main  Biblical  history,  telling 
of  early  godlike  men,  of  their  fall,  of  a  Deluge 
and  ark-saved  family,  of  a  new  seeding  of  the 
earth  with  mankind,  of  another  general  corrup- 
tion, of  divine  counteractions  by  seers  and  revela- 
tions and  miracles  and  priesthoods. 

The  great  depravity  of  mankind  at  present  is 
recognized  in  the  customs  and  institutions  of  all 
lands.  What  means  the  immense  array  every- 
where of  laws  and  penalties,  of  magistrates  and 
police,  of  armies  and  navies  and  arsenals,  of  courts 
and  prisons  and  taxes  ?  They  are  the  safeguards 
that  society  has  set  up  against  human  selfishness 
and  wickedness.  They  are  monuments  of  what 
the  world   thinks   of  its   own   moral   condition. 


POSSIBLE   SALVATION.  223 

They  have  the  gift  of  tongues  to  say  among  all 
nations  that  men  are  so  wicked  that  they  can  only 
be  kept  in  order,  kept  on  living  terms  with  one 
another,  kept  from  glaring  mutual  injustice,  by 
severe  measures.  Human  legislation  is  of  two 
sorts — that  which  is  itself  wicked  and  that  which 
is  against  wickedness.  Many  laws  are  unjust, 
oppressive,  against  the  truth  and  general  inter- 
ests, for  the  few  against  the  many.  They  are 
themselves  the  streams  that  flow  from  the  wick- 
edness of  law-makers — from  their  greed,  selfish- 
ness, and  cruelty.  But  even  a  wicked  rukr  feels 
that  he  must  defend  society  against  the  wicked- 
ness of  other  men — against  the  tiger,  the  vulture, 
the  serpent,  the  swine,  the  brute  that  there  is  in 
them.  Hence  in  every  land  a  great  body  of  legal 
provisions  for  securing  exact  justice  between  man 
and  man.  The  extent  of  this  legislation  and  the 
severity  of  it  show  how  general  and  mighty  is  the 
world's  sense  of  the  depravity  against  which  it 
contends;  just  as  the  great  precautions  taken  in  a 
menagerie  against  the  breaking  forth  of  wild 
beasts,  or  in  Holland  against  the  breaking  in  of 
the  ocean,  show  what  men  think  of  the  dangers 
of  the  situation. 

So  it  has  ever  been.  The  literature  and  usa- 
ges and  laws  and  histories  of  all  known  countries 
and  times  have  always  proclaimed  it  the  sense  of 


224  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

mankind  that  mankind  is  terribly  wicked.  I  am 
not  now  asserting  that  it  is  terribly  wicked.  As 
to  that  judge  for  yourselves.  But  what  is  the 
judgment  of  the  world  at  large  on  the  matter  no 
more  admits  of  question  than  does  the  presence  of 
night  and  death  in  the  world. 

Of  course  this  general  sense  of  great  sinfulness 
carries  with  it  a  sense  of  condemnation  and  dan- 
ger. The  condemnable  abuts  hard  on  the  con- 
demned. One  cannot  well  hold  to  the  moral  ruin 
of  the  race  without  grave,  though  it  may  be  vague, 
apprehensions  of  the  consequences — without  some- 
thing of  that  "fearful  looking  for  of  judgment" 
of  which  the  Scriptures  speak:  This  fear  ex- 
presses itself  all  over  the  world  in  innumerable 
supplications,  rituals,  austerities,  expiations,  pro- 
pitiatory offerings.  Such  things  are  a  trembling 
before  a  judgment-seat.  They  are  a  language  in 
themselves,  and  when  translated  into  English 
they  say,  "We  are  afraid  of  the  punishments  we 
deserve.  Let  us  try  to  escape  them."  This  is 
the  outcry  of  the  old  Vedic  prayer:  "Take  from 
me  my  sin,  like  a  fetter,  O  Varuna;  take  far  away 
from  me  this  terror,  O  Varuna;  do  not  strike  us, 
Varuna,  with  weapons  which  at  thy  will  hurt  the 
evil-doer.  Let  us  not  go  where  the  light  has  van- 
ished." This  is  also  the  outcry  of  the  old  Baby- 
lonian tablets: 


POSSIBLE   SALVATION.  225 

"  May  my  sins  be  forgiven,  blotted  out  my  transgressions, 

The  ban  upon  me  be  broken,  tlie  chain  loosed ; 

May  the  seven  winds  bear  my  sighs  away  ! 

I  will  tear  my  wickedness  asunder;  may  the  bird  bear  it  up 

to  the  sky ; 
May  the  fish  bear  away  my  vexation,  the  stream  bear  it  off; 
May  the  beast  of  the  field  take  it  from  me,  the  swift  waters 

of  the  stream  wash  me  clean  !" 

But  such  efforts  meau  something  more  than  a 
sense  of  danger  and  of  need  of  salvation.  They 
imply  some  degree  of  hope.  They  at  least  say, 
"  Perhaps  the  retributive  power  is  placable.  Per- 
haps it  is  possible  to  ward  off  penalties."  Nay, 
there  is  not  a  religion  in  the  world,  written  or 
unwritten,  which  does  not  hold  out  some  positive 
encouragement  to  an  anxious  sinner.  They  dif- 
fer in  the  clearness  and  degree  of  the  encourage- 
ment they  offer.  Some  are  vague  and  bilingual  in 
some  of  the  kind  words  they  say;  but  not  one  of 
them  locks  up  its  adherents  in  the  dungeons  of 
despair  and  then  flings  the  key  away.  The  sun 
shines,  it  may  be  through  mists  or  even  dense 
clouds,  but  it  shines  nevertheless;  it  is  by  no 
means  night,  with  an  opaque  globe  between  the 
eye  and  the  luminary.  So  the  nations  bring  offer- 
ings; so  they  recite  prayers;  so  they  afflict  their 
bodies;  so  they  slay  victims  at  the  altar,  especially 
the  latter.  Altars  red  with  blood  have  been  in 
the  foreg-round  of  all  countries  and  times.     While 

Universal  BeliefR.  I  CJ 


226  UNIVERSAI.   BKlvlEFS. 

Moses — who  is  at  least  as  good  authority  as  San- 
choniathon  or  Manetho  or  Berosus — makes  them 
coeval  with  the  race,  all  other  historians  and  tra- 
ditionists  find  them  as  far  back  as  they  find  any- 
thing. When  we  first  see  the  Druid  in  the  sacred 
o-roves  of  Gaul  and  Britain,  the  Norse  folk  amid 
their  primeval  forests  and  snows,  the  Roman  fa- 
thers rough-hewing  the  Eternal  City,  the  Greeks 
fighting  on  the  plain  of  Troy  or  sailing  from 
Egypt  with  Cadmus  and  Cecrops,  the  Egyptians 
at  work  on  their  time-defying  temples  and  pyra- 
mids, the  Phoenicians  and  Assyrians  trading  and 
conquering  from  Sidon  and  Nineveh,  the  Hindoos 
composing  the  Rig- Veda — in  short,  wherever  we 
see  first  things  peering  out  at  us  from  the  mists 
of  the  past — there  we  see  the  victim  dying  as  a 
sacrifice  for  sin.  All  ages  trickle  with  atoning 
blood.  The  lintels  and  door-posts  of  all  lands  are 
stained  with  heaven-appealing  crimson.  That 
sinners  could  be  saved  from  penal  evils  without 
an  atonement  of  some  kind  seems  never  to  have 
entered  the  thought  of  men  at  large.  They  have 
thought,  not  only  that  an  atonement  must  be,  but 
that  it  must  be  suffering  in  some  form,  and  even 
a  mortal  suffering — have  sometimes  thought  that 
man  himself  must  be  the  victim. 

If  with  a  bloody  atonement  the  sinner  should 
couple  a  putting  away  of  the   offensive   thing, 


POSSIBLE   SALVATION.  22/ 

his  best  chances  of  pardon  were  supposed  to  be 
reached.  Regret  for  the  past,  with  an  honest 
purpose  of  a  new  life,  would  be  just  and  reason- 
able; this  is  what,  offending  men  would  rely  on  to 
set  them  right  with  their  fellows  if  the  thing  were 
at  all  possible;  this  is  what  they  would  be  likely 
to  exact  from  persons  offending  them  :  so  they 
everywhere  assume  that  such  are  the  surest  con- 
ditions of  acceptance  with  heaven — of  salvation. 

As  aids  to  salvation  mankind  at  large  have 
always  held  to  a  supernatural  revelation,  to  mira- 
cles or  divine  interventions  in  human  affairs,  to  a 
priesthood  or  class  of  men  set  apart  to  the  care  of 
religious  matters ;  to  special  religious  days  and 
celebrations,  as  Sabbaths  and  sacraments  and  pub- 
lic worship;  to  places  of  special  sanctity,  as  groves 
and  eminences  and  temples  and  synagogues  and 
churches. 

Such  are  the  views  generally  entertained  in 
the  world  as  to  the  nature  of  salvation,  its  main 
historic  setting,  the  need  of  it,  its  conditions,  and 
the  means  for  realizing  these  conditions.  They 
aofree  with  the  views  derived  from  the  Bible. 
And  the  Bible  views  agree  with  those  derived 
from  reason  and  the  sciences. 

The  radiations  of  the  science  of  language  are 
towards  one  original  speech;  the  radiations  of  his- 
tory, ethnology,  and  philology  are  towards  the 


228  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

region  of  the  Euphrates  as  being  the  site  of  the 
parent  language  and  the  cradle  of  the  human  race. 
This  is  conceded  by  the  most  eminent  scholars  in 
such  matters.  But  a  common  speech  and  a  com- 
mon cradle  mean  a  common  parentage — though 
some  do  incredulously  ask  whether  it  is  possible 
that  all  the  widely  differing  varieties  of  men 
sprang  from  one  stock.  Could  different  climates, 
modes  of  living,  and  other  like  things  have  given 
us  brethren  so  unlike  one  another  as  are  the 
blackest  Nubian  and  the  whitest  Caucasian? 
Yes,  it  is  quite  possible.  Under  the  stress  of  such 
causes,  to  say  nothing  of  the  help  given  by  an  oc- 
casional liLsiis  natiLvcB  in  which  the  child  breaks 
away  widely  from  the  parental  type,  communities 
have  been  known  to  so  change  color  and  features 
in  the  course  of  a  few  generations  as  to  remove  all 
difficulty  from  the  doctrine  of  a  single  original 
parentage.  The  books  give  abundant  examples 
of  such  changes. 

Now,  the  single  original  pair  must  have  been 
a  divine  product;  for  natural  development  im- 
plies many  centres  of  origin  in  the  course  of  ages. 
It  is  infinitely  improbable  that  innumerable  lines 
of  organic  development  streaming  upward  in  all 
parts  of  the  earth  should  have  culminated  in  man 
in  only  a  single  instance  during  so  many  ages. 
But  if  God  made  the  first  human  parents,  it  is  rea- 


POSSIBI.E  SAU'ATION.  229 

sonable  to  suppose  that  he  made  them  ''very 
good;"  made  them  perfect  in  their  kind  both  as 
to  body  and  soul ;  made  them  with  no  depraved 
biases  of  constitution,  but,  on  the  contrary,  with 
all  their  moral  tendencies  in  the  right  direction; 
in  a  word,  started  them  on  their  career  with  all 
possible  advantages  for  making  it  a  success.  This 
is  what  we  would  naturally  expect  from  a  good 
God.  And,  as  we  have  seen,  the  great  traditions 
say  that  the  race  actually  began  in  heroes,  demi- 
gods, and  gods — that  it  was  with  man  as  we  know 
it  to  have  been  with  the  other  animal  tribes  that 
have  come  and  gone  through  the  geologic  ages. 
These  generally  began  in  their  best  specimens. 
As  Hugh  Miller  says,  "In  the  procession  of  the 
generations  the  magnates  walk  first. ' '  It  would 
be  of  a  piece  with  the  geologic  story  if  the  best 
men,  physically  and  mentally  and  morally,  head- 
ed the  long  procession  of  humanity.  Also,  the 
high  character  of  the  most  ancient  languages  and 
monuments  does  not  invite  us  to  think  of  our  first 
parents  as  apes  or  savages. 

That  their  Maker  gave  these  first-class  men 
first-class  surroundings  follows  from  the  fitness  of 
things.  Flowers  fit  naturally  to  sunshine  and  not 
to  shadow.  A  rich  jewel  should  not  have  a  mean 
setting,  nor  a  common  stone  of  the  highway  be 
elaborately  incased  in  the  finest  crold.     Heaven  is 


230  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

not  a  fit  place  for  a  bad  man,  nor  hell  a  fit  place 
for  a  good  one.  So  we  naturally  conceive  of  the 
first  ancestors,  primates  of  the  race  and  fresh  from 
the  hands  of  God,  as  occupying,  not  a  desert,  but 
a  garden,  as  inhabiting,  not  an  uninviting  region 
on  which  the  eye  cares  not  to  linger,  but  one 
whose  charms  appeal  to  every  sense.  That  such 
men,  so  happily  circumstanced,  should  have  been 
healthy  and  long-lived,  not  to  say  immortal,  is 
easily  believed.  It  is  even  believable  that  such 
were  the  original  physical  soundness  and  stamina 
that  even  sinful  ways,  though  necessarily  to  the 
prejudice  of  health,  might  require  some  genera- 
tions in  which  to  make  very  apparent  their  de- 
structive work.  Strong  walls  will  stand  consid- 
erable battering  without  sensible  damage.  Strong 
constitutions  do  not  yield  easily  to  first  attacks. 

Are  lapses  from  virtue  and  high  position  un- 
common in  human  experience?  Solomon  has 
had  many  successors  in  falling.  No  doubt,  also, 
he  had  many  predecessors;  and  why  may  not  the 
first  man,  with  his  free  electing  nature,  have  been 
among  them?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  open  to  the 
observation  of  the  dullest,  man  is  at  present  a 
fallen  being.  This  is  not  a  mere  plausible  specu- 
lation. We  need  no  revelation  from  the  highest 
heaven  to  tell  us  of  it.  We  have  only  to  look 
about  us.     Depraved  tendencies  and  free  sinning 


POSSIBIvK  SALVATION.  23I 

meet  our  eyes  on  every  hand.  They  are  recog- 
nized and  provided  against  (alas,  sometimes  pro- 
vided/<?r)  in  the  whole  structure  of  society.  And 
so  it  always  has  been,  as  far  back  as  the  eye  can 
penetrate.  Where  did  the  evident  fall  of  human 
nature  occur  ?  The  Bible  says  that  it  was  in  the 
person  of  the  first  man.  Know  we  aught  to  the 
contrary?  Why  not  in  the  first  generation  as 
well  as  in  any  other?  Surely  the  Bible  account 
is  not  in  discord  with  anything  that  we  know. 

Nor  is  its  account  of  the  extent  of  human  sin- 
fulness. We  are  plainly  a  ruined  race.  Man  in 
his  natural  state  deserves  to  be  called  a  *Most'' 
man.  Some  indeed  descant  vaguely  on  the  inno- 
cence of  childhood  and  the  grandeur  of  human 
nature,  so  as  to  carry  the  impression  that  theology 
has  slandered  it,  and  that  even  public  convicts 
and  murderers  are  hardly  more  than  unfortunates 
to  whom  tender-hearted  ladies  should  send  delica- 
cies and  flowers  and  notes  of  condolence.  But 
such  euphemists,  such  rose-colored  and  rose-giv- 
ing people,  are  demonstrably  Utopian.  They 
smite  common  sense  and  daily  experience,  as  well 
as  blood -smeared  and  crime -haunted  history, 
squarely  in  the  face.  What  nonsense  !  An  aver- 
age daily  experience  roundly  gives  it  the  lie. 
Closet  theories  ending  in  benedictions,  and  doxol- 
ogies  on  glorious  human  nature  get  hard  knocks 


232  UXIVHRSAI.    BELIEFS. 

just  as  soon  as  they  go  forth  to  mingle  with  the 
world  in  nurseries  and  traffics  and  politics,  to  say 
nothing  of  steerages  and  Bast  Ends  and  liquor- 
saloons  and  penitentiaries.  There  are  natural 
amiabilities.  Useful  impulses  exist  in  all  men. 
Above  all,  there  are  numbers  of  measurably  re- 
formed and  upward-striving  people.  And  yet  the 
moral  state  of  mankind  at  large  is  such  that  the 
boldest  of  us  would  tremble  were  restraints  of  all 
sorts  (legal,  social,  moral)  suddenly  taken  off  from 
the  people,  all  bonds  and  mortgages  to  good  be- 
havior cancelled,  and  every  person  turned  loose 
on  society  to  do  whatever  he  might  please,  with- 
out fear  of  any  sort  of  accountability.  Ah,  what 
a  scene !  One  would  like  to  transfer  himself  to 
another  planet.  The  lesson  that  every  man  in 
practical  life  soon  learns  is  that  if  he  would  act 
prudently  he  must  assume  the  justice  of  the  Bible 
views  of  the  present  state  of  human  nature. 

Who  can  say  that  it  is  at  all  unlikely  that  God 
would  show  his  displeasure  at  the  great  lapse  of 
man  by  smiting  his  body,  shortening  his  life,  and 
driving  him  out  of  his  paradise  into  a  thornful  and 
disfigured  world;  or  that,  afterward,  he  w^ould  not 
from  time  to  time  find  occasion  to  let  loose  hia 
hand  in  special  judgments  on  specially  presump- 
tuous and  audacious  offenders  ?  Would  it  be  un- 
just?    Is  it  plain  that  it  would  be  inexpedient? 


POSSIBLE   SALVATION.  233 

Does  the  eternal  fitness  of  things  demand  that  a 
fallen  race  should  have  unfallen  surroundings,  or 
that  a  government  should  never  make  unmis- 
takable and  affrighting  examples  of  ringleaders 
in  rebellion  ? 

Nevertheless  it  would  not  be  surprising  if  the 
Maker  should  pity  his  lapsed  and  wretched  crea- 
tures. As  little  would  we  wonder  if,  under  the 
impulse  of  this  pity,  he  should  devise  some  way  in 
which  he  could  consistently  offer  to  pardon  them. 
What  more  likely  than  that  this  way  would  in- 
volve the  regrets  and  amendments  of  repentance 
on  the  part  of  offenders  as  well  as  some  atonement 
in  their  behalf?  Atonements  between  men  are 
always  in  order.  If  a  man  has  done  wrong  he  is 
not  only  bound  to  be  sorry  and  to  do  so  no  more, 
but  he  is  also  bound  to  make  such  reparation  as 
he  can.  If  he  himself  can  make  none,  but  a  friend 
freely  offers  to  make  one  for  him,  may  he  not 
properly  accept  the  offer  ?  And  may  not  the  in- 
jured party  accept  it?  This  is  done  in  many  cases 
by  civil  governments.  If  the  penalty  for  a  given 
offence  is  a  fine  and  the  offender  has  no  money  of 
his  own,  a  payment  of  the  fine  by  a  friend  will  be 
accepted  as  a  full  settlement.  This  is  really  a 
case  of  vicarious  atonement,  of  substituted  suffer- 
ing. And  it  is  an  open  question  whether  the  prin- 
ciple of  substituted  suffering,  voluntarily  under- 


234  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

taken,  might  not  properly  be  used  more  exten- 
sively than  it  is.  Plainly,  if  the  case  is  such  that 
the  suffering  of  a  voluntary  substitute  is  fully 
equivalent,  so  far  as  all  governmental  purposes 
are  concerned,  to  the  penalty  as  borne  by  the 
actual  offender,  it  would  be  allowable  to  accept 
the  one  instead  of  the  other.  Can  any  show  that 
such  an  atonement  as  the  Christian  claims  to  be — 
the  freely  offered  suffering  of  God  manifest  in  the 
flesh — is  not  of  this  sort?  It  looks  to  hungry  eyes 
as  if  it  might  be.  It  looks  to  multitudes  of  judicial 
minds  as  if  it  would  answer  just  as  w^ell  in  the 
case  of  a  penitent  as  would  his  personal  enduring 
of  the  penalty — answer  just  as  well  for  expressing 
the  divine  displeasure  at  sin  and  for  upholding 
the  majesty  of  law. 

Also,  one  should  not  be  surprised  if  he  should 
find  Deity  providing  some  system  of  ways  and 
means  for  securing  the  necessary  penitence,  and 
for  ripening  it  into  a  permanently  renovated  char- 
acter and  life.  Among  such  ways  and  means 
why  might  not  divine  messages  and  miracles  and 
ministers  serve  a  good  purpose;  why  not  Sabbaths 
and  sanctuaries  and  sacraments  ? 

The  messages  from  God  would  show  clearly 
what  ought  to  be  done  and  would  supply  motive 
to  do  it,  would  instruct,  counsel,  warn,  encour- 
age, after  the  wisest  and  most  effective  fashion. 


POSSIBLE   SALVATION.  235 

Miracles,  in  addition  to  other  advantages,  would 
authenticate  the  messages.  And,  pray,  how  else 
could  they  be  authenticated?  If  men  are  to  be 
taught  and  persuaded  and  disciplined  in  religious 
matters,  it  would  seem  exceedingly  useful  to  have 
an  order  of  men  specially  devoted  to  this  work,  as 
farmers  and  lawyers  and  physicians  are  devoted  to 
theirs.  It  is  hard  to  imagine  a  means  better  fitted 
to  promote  religion  in  the  world  than  a  body  of 
competent  men  giving  chief  and  skilled  attention 
to  its  promotion.  With  learning  and  eloquence 
and  consecration,  with  mighty  voices  and  mighty 
pens,  backed  by  a  mighty  example,  what  might 
not  the  cause  of  righteousness  hope  from  them  ? 

But,  in  order  that  such  a  class  of  men  may  do 
their  work  to  the  best  advantage,  it  seems  desira- 
ble to  have  sacred  days  and  sacred  places,  Sab- 
baths and  sanctuaries,  in  which  the  people  may 
come  together  away  from  their  secularities  and 
sit  under  the  shaping  influence  of  religious  teach- 
ers. The  experience  of  the  world  seems  to  show 
that  without  Sabbaths  and  sanctuaries  religious 
teachers  would  be  without  their  best  opportunity, 
and  that,  without  religious  teachers  to  explain  and 
enforce  the  written  revelation  with  the  magnetic 
force  of  living  voices,  it  would  fail  to  reach  society 
in  the  most  economical  and  effective  manner. 

So  institutions  of  this  sort,  common  in  one 


236  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

form  or  another  to  all  religions,  are  by  no  means 
unlikely  to  have  come  from  God.  Nay,  should 
he  demand  Eaith,  as  all  religions  agree  that  he 
does,  after  having  furnished  great  evidences  and 
offered  any  amount  of  spiritual  aid  to  asking 
souls — that  is,  should  he  demand  that  fairness  of 
mind  and  honesty  of  inquiry  which  if  duly  used 
would  be  sure  to  lead  to  faith,  the  demand  would 
be  anything  but  unreasonable,  according  to  any 
standard  of  reasonableness  which  common  sense 
and  the  world's  business  would  not  cry  out  against. 
And,  altogether,  we  have  a  consensus  not  only 
of  all  religions  and  nations,  but  of  many  other  ra- 
tional witnesses,  as  to  the  nature  and  need  and 
conditions  and  means  of  salvation,  also  as  to  the 
main  historic  framework  in  which  the  salvation 
is  set. 


X.  MAIN   ETHICS. 


Ite  ipsi  in  vestrae  penetralia  mentis  et  intus 
Incisos  apices,  et  scripta  volumina  mentis 
Inspicite,  et  genitam  vobiscum  agnoscite  legem. 

Anon, 

Go  into  the  recesses  of  your  own  mind  and  inspect  the 
characters  written  there,  and,  as  it  were,  cut  into  the  very- 
substance,  and  recognize  the  law  born  with  you. 


Who  show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts, 
their  conscience  also  bearing  witness,  and  their  thoughts  the 
meanwhile  accusing  or  else  excusing  one  another. 

ST.  PAUL. 


MAIN    ETHICS.  239 


X.  MAIN  ETHICS. 

** There  is,"  says  Cicero,  ''a  true  law,  con- 
formed to  reason  and  nature,  diffused  over  all, 
invariable  and  eternal,  which  calls  to  the  fulfil- 
ment of  duty.  This  law  requires  no  commentator 
to  make  it  intelligible,  nor  is  it  different  at  Rome, 
at  Athens,  now  and  in  the  ages  before  and  after; 
but  in  all  ages  and  in  all  nations  it  is  and  has 
been  and  will  be  one  and  everlasting — one  as  that 
God,  its  great  author  and  promulgator,  who  is  the 
common  Sovereign  of  all  mankind,  is  himself 
one." 

''Cast  your  eyes,"  says  Rousseau,  "over  all 
the  nations  of  the  world  and  all  the  histories  of 
nations.  Amid  so  many  inhuman  and  absurd 
superstitions,  amid  that  prodigious  diversity  of 
manners  and  characters,  you  will  find  everywhere 
the  same  principles  and  distinctions  of  moral  good 
and  evil.  The  paganism  of  the  ancient  world  pro- 
duced, indeed,  abominable  gods  who  on  earth 
would  have  been  shunned  or  punished  as  mon- 
sters, and  who  offered  as  a  picture  of  supreme 
happiness  only  crimes  to  commit  and  passions  to 
satiate.    But  Vice,  armed  with  this  sacred  author- 


240  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

ity,  descended  in  vain  from  the  eternal  abode ; 
she  found  in  the  heart  of  man  a  moral  instinct  to 
repel  her.  The  continence  of  Xenocrates  was 
admired  by  those  who  celebrated  the  debauch- 
eries of  Jupiter.  The  chaste  Lucretia  adored  the 
unchaste  Venus.  The  most  intrepid  Roman  sac- 
rificed to  Fear.  He  invoked  the  god  who  de- 
throned his  father,  and  he  died  without  a  murmur 
by  the  hand  of  his  own.  The  most  contemptible 
divinities  were  served  by  the  greatest  men.  The 
holy  voice  of  nature,  stronger  than  that  of  the 
gods,  made  itself  heard  and  respected  and  obeyed 
on  earth,  and  seemed  to  banish,  as  it  were,  to  the 
confinement  of  heaven  guilt  and  the  guilty." 

To-day  we  have  a  wider  and  far  more  exact 
outlook  on  both  the  ancient  and  the  modern  world 
than  Cicero  or  even  Rousseau  had,  and  the  result 
of  such  an  outlook  is  partly  expressed  by  a  recent 
writer  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Philosophical 
Society  of  Great  Britain.  "All  races  of  people 
look  on  murder,  theft,  impurity,  and  falsehood  as 
sins  and  actions  to  be  avoided." 

Prior  to  any  inquiry  into  the  actual  facts  we 
should  expect  that  such  things  (and  several  others 
besides)  would  be  found  universally  condemned 
by  the  human  conscience.  Their  badness  seems 
a  matter  of  intuition.  They  are  self-proclaimed 
crimes.     x\nd  then  they  are  so  plainly  destructive 


MAIN    ETHICS.  241 

to  society  if  fully  allowed  that  one  would  think 
that  the  rudest  intelligence  might  see  it— see  it 
without  argument.  The  man  who  does  not  see  it 
without  argument  would  hardly  see  it  w^ith. 

There  never  has  been  a  community  where 
some  form  of  government  has  not  existed.  But 
government  means  restraint  from  some  things — 
from  the  nature  of  the  case  means  restraint,  for  at 
least  the  mass  of  the  people,  from  such  things  as 
would,  if  freely  practised,  be  inconsistent  with 
the  existence  of  society  in  any  tolerable  condition. 
Now  it  is  easy  to  see  (for  anybody  to  see,  even  for 
a  savage)  that  a  collection  of  human  beings  among 
whom  no  respect  whatever  is  paid  to  rights  of 
property,  to  domestic  ties,  to  truthfulness  and 
promises  and  contracts,  to  what  is  just  and  equal 
between  man  and  man,  to  compassion  and  help- 
fulness for  the  wretched,  to  even  personal  safety 
and  life — I  say  it  is  easy  for  the  rudest  to  see  that 
such  people  could  not  long  hold  together.  They 
would  naturally  fly  apart  as  if  by  dynamite  and 
all  the  centrifugals.  Every  man  would  be  a  por- 
cupine, an  Ishmaelite,  a  French  Revolution  to 
every  other.  So,  all  over  the  w^orld,  government 
has  never  failed  to  demand,  at  least  from  the 
masses,  conformity  to  all  the  leading  moralities  as 
held  by  ourselves.  Thus  among  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians calumniators  received  the  punishment  due 

rni vernal  Bfliefg.  1 6 


242  UNIVERSAI.   BELIEFS. 

to  the  crime  with  which  they  charged  the  inno- 
cent. Falsehood  was  pnnished  with  loss  of  the 
tongue,  forgery  with  loss  of  the  hands,  adultery 
with  flogging.  Perjury  and  murder  were  pun- 
ished w4th  death. 

Of  course  we  have  to  confess  that  the  lives  of 
men  in  all  lands  are  largely  ungoverned  by  just 
rules  of  living.  But  this  is  not  because  these 
rules,  at  least  the  main  ones,  are  generally  un- 
known or  unapproved.  All  the  leading  principles 
of  morals,  as  taught  in  our  Scriptures  and  accept- 
ed among  us  and  largely  incorporated  in  the  laws 
of  all  Christian  countries,  will  be  found  on  actual 
inquiry  to  be  theoretically  accepted  in  all  lands 
and  times.  They  appear  with  different  degrees  of 
clearness  in  different  places;  they  are  more  em- 
phasized at  some  times  than  at  others;  some  that 
are  set  in  the  front  here  occupy  the  background 
there;  but  go  where  we  will  among  the  nations 
and  dates,  we  can,  provided  there  is  light  enough 
to  see  anything,  discover  them  all.  As  vital  air 
can  be  found  everywhere  in  the  world,  though 
thinner  and  impurer  and  more  disturbed  in  some 
places  than  in  others,  so  the  main  moral  ideas  as 
we  hold  them  are  neither  local  nor  national,  but 
terrestrial.  They  belong  to  all  mankind.  Shall 
we  take  the  trouble  to  except  here  and  there  some 
exhausted  receiver  of  a  "philosopher"  or  a  rep- 


MAIN    ETHICS.  243 

robate  who  lias  managed  to  rid  himself  of  all  sense 
of  moral  distinctions?  The  Bible  does  not  do  it 
when,  after  instancing  atheism,  idolatry,  sodomy, 
fornication,  covetousness,  envy,  malice,  deceit, 
murder,  slander,  disobedience  to  parents,  covenant- 
breaking,  absence  of  natural  affection,  implaca- 
bleness,  unmercifulness,  it  proceeds  to  say  of  the 
Gentiles,  "Who,  knowing  that  they  who  commit 
such  things  are  worthy  of  death,  not  only  do  the 
same,  but  have  pleasure  in  them  that  do  them. ' ' 

A  Christian  missionary  in  Japan,  who  for 
many  years  has  had  large  intercourse  with  its  peo- 
ple, tells  us  that  he  has  never  yet  found  among 
them  one  not  substantially  consenting  to  the  Dec- 
alogue. Like  testimony  has  been  given  in  regard 
to  peoples  in  the  interior  of  Africa. 

Says  a  Chinese  scholar,  "There  is  probably 
not  a  single  moral  precept  in  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures which  is  not  found  for  substance  somewhere 
in  the  Chinese  classics"  —  found  imbedded  in 
much  rubbish,  found  disfigured  and  even  contra- 
dicted often  by  its  context,  but  still  easily  found. 
Says  another,  "  No  nation  in  the  world  (heathen) 
has  displayed  the  same  ability  to  see  what  was 
individually,  socially,  and  politically  right."  It 
is  well  known  that  Confucius  taught  the  Golden 
Rule,  which  is  really  the  whole  scheme  of  Chris- 
tian morals  in  shorthand.     Whoever  knows  that 


244  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

he  ought  to  do  to  others  as  he  would  that  others 
should  do  to  him,  knows  that  ingratitude,  injus- 
tice, impurity,  selfishness,  dishonoring  of  parents, 
lying,  stealing,  cruelty,  oppression,  slander,  un- 
provoked hatred,  and  malice  are  wrong;  for  who 
wants  any  of  these  practised  against  himself  or 
family?  As  against  himself,  he  holds  such  things 
to  be  odious  and  wicked.  So  at  the  bottom  of  his 
heart  he  knows  them  to  be  odious  and  wicked  as 
against  others. 

The  Buddhists,  numbering  not  far  from  a 
fourth  of  mankind,  have  a  system  of  morals  so 
like  the  Christian  that  some  have  maintained  that 
one  must  have  been  taken  directly  from  the  other. 
There  is  scarcely  a  thing  forbidden  or  a  thing 
commanded  in  the  Bible  which  is  not  also  forbid- 
den or  commanded  in  the  Tripitaka.  The  Buddh- 
ists even  have  their  formal  Decalogue — forbidding 
killing,  theft,  unchastity,  lying,  slander,  swear- 
ing, vain  conversation,  covetousness,  skepticism, 
the  first  four  items  of  which  are  the  same  with 
the  last  four  of  the  Mosaic.  So  far  as  mere  eth- 
ics are  concerned,  Buddha  Gautama  deserves  to 
be  called  the  light  of  Asia,  though  in  other  grave 
respects  and  in  his  general  influence  he  is  little 
better  than  darkness.  His  stars  struggle  through 
banks  of  clouds,  his  gold  is  in  close  partnership 
with  a  plenty  of  dross. 


MAIN    ETHICS.  245 

As  to  the  Indian  religions  other  than  Buddh- 
ism, among  much  that  is  unworthy  and  perni- 
cious in  their  sacred  books  we  find  occasional 
statements  or  implications  of  all  the  main  ele- 
ments of  common  morality.  In  the  Vedic  hymns, 
the  Laws  of  Manu,  and  the  Institutes  of  Vishnu 
are  taught  forgiveness  of  injuries,  truth-telling, 
reverence  for  parents  and  the  aged,  kindness  to 
the  wretched,  generosity,  humility,  chastity.  The 
Institutes  forbid  slander,  robbery,  dishonesty,  giv- 
ing false  evidence,  drinking  spirituous  liquors, 
advancing  one's  interests  by  false  statements,  adul- 
tery, atheism.  The  Laws  of  Manu  condemn 
wrongful  gains,  return  of  evil  for  good,  slander, 
intemperance,  dealing  in  ardent  spirits,  false  wit- 
ness, unjust  judgments  and  punishments,  viola- 
tions of  pledges  and  trusts,  conspiracies  to  raise 
prices  to  the  injury  of  laborers,  gambling.  Earth's 
*' Religions  of  India,"  with  one  eye  shut  on  all 
that  is  bad  and  the  other  open  on  all  that  is  good, 
says,  "The  religions  of  India  have  not  only  given 
birth  to  Buddhism  and  produced  to  their  own 
credit  a  code  of  precepts  which  is  not  inferior  to 
any  other,  but  in  the  poetry  which  they  have  in- 
spired there  is  at  times  a  delicacy  and  bloom  of 
moral  sentiment  which  the  Western  world  has 
never  seen  outside  of  Christianity.  One  of  the 
men  who  have  done  most  to  promote  an  acquaint- 


246  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

ance  with  the  Hindoo  religions,  Sir  John  Muir, 
has  collected  a  certain  number  of  their  maxims 
and  thoughts  in  an  exquisite  anthology,  which 
must  have  gained  many  friends  to  India.  And 
yet  what  a  gloomy  side!"  .  .  .  Here  the  other 
eye  has  opened  on  the  vast  mass  of  absurdities, 
inconsistencies,  and  abominations  in  which  the 
golden  grains  are  imbedded,  on  the  wide  deserts 
in  which  the  little  oases  of  just  ethics  are  found. 

The  Avesta  of  the  Persians  has,  scattered 
through  it,  like  testimonies  to  the  common  prin- 
ciples of  morality,  condensed  in  a  certain  place 
into  the  following  prayer:  "I  repent  of  pride, 
covetousness,  envy,  sloth,  repining  against  divine 
Providence,  unbelief,  false  witness,  prayerlessness, 
theft,  unchastity  ;  of  these  vices  repent  I  with 
thoughts,  words,  and  works." 

Like  testimonies  have  in  late  years  been  deci- 
phered from  the  "Book  of  the  Dead,"  the  in- 
scriptions on  tombs,  and  the  papyri  of  old  Egypt. 
From  these  we  learn  that  the  early  Egyptian  eth- 
ics strongly  resembled  the  Hebrew,  and  even  the 
higher  requirements  of  the  Christian  religion. 
"None  of  the  Christian  virtues,"  says  M.  Chabas, 
"is  forgotten  in  the  Egyptian  code — piety,  char- 
ity, gentleness,  chastity,  protection  of  the  weak, 
benevolence,  respect  of  property  in  its  minutest 
details."      The  inscriptions  on   tombs  represent 


MAIN    ETHICS.  247 

the  dead  as  trying  to  justify  themselves  before 
their  judge  Osiris  in  the  following  manner:  "Not 
a  little  child  did  I  injure,  not  a  widow  did  I  op- 
press;  there  was  no  beggar  in  my  days."  "I 
have  taken  pleasure  in  speaking  the  truth ;  though 
great,  I  have  acted  as  if  I  had  been  a  little  one." 
' '  I  was  bread  to  the  hungry,  water  to  the  thirsty, 
clothes  to  the  naked,  a  refuge  to  him  that  was  in 
want;  what  I  did  to  him  the  great  God  has  done 
to  me. "  "I  have  not  blasphemed,  I  have  not 
stolen,  I  have  not  been  cruel,  I  have  not  stirred 
up  trouble,  I  have  not  been  idle,  I  have  not  been 
drunk,  I  have  not  slandered,  I  have  not  been  en- 
vious. ' '  One  papyrus,  held  to  have  been  written 
long  before  Moses,  inculcates  the  study  of  wis- 
dom, the  duty  of  honoring  parents,  of  respecting 
property,  of  being  charitable  and  peaceable  and 
contented  and  humble  and  chaste  and  sober  and 
truthful  and  just.  In  the  same  strain  run  other 
papyri. 

Little  is  known  of  the  view^s  of  the  earlier 
Arabians ;  but,  as  the  descendants  of  Abraham 
they  may  fairly  be  presumed  to  have  held  to  the 
same  elementary  morals  as  the  Hebrews.  At  the 
time  when  Mohammed  appeared  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians and  disciples  of  the  Avesta  made  a  large 
part  of  the  population  of  Arabia.  The  remainder 
were  worshippers  of  stars  and  images,  but  they 


248  UNIVERSAL   BEI.IEFS. 

possessed  and  held  as  sacred  the  Old  Testament 
Psalms,  from  which  one  can  gather  a  very  clear 
and  extensive  code  of  just  morals.  They  had  also 
the  "Book  of  Seth,"  "full  of  moral  discourses," 
which  they  held  to  be  equally  sacred  with  the 
Psalms.  Then  came  the  Koran,  and  gave  law 
not  only  to  Arabians,  but  to  a  large  part  of  the 
human  race.  Did  it  revoke  the  original  "Data 
of  Ethics"?  Turning  to  the  index  in  Sale's 
Koran  and  looking  for  such  words  as  "crimes," 
"punishments,"  "sins,"  "murder,"  "theft," 
' '  gaming, "  "  contracts, "  "  oaths, "  "  fornica- 
tion," "adultery,"  "forgiveness  of  injuries," 
"envy,"  "hypocrites,"  "slander,"  "bribery," 
"charity,"  "chastity,"  "parents,"  we  find  our- 
selves able  to  piece  out  a  very  large  code  of  cor- 
rect morals,  one  that  follows  closely  in  the  steps 
of  Christianity  itself  It  is  true  that  we  find  also 
many  inconsistencies  and  contradictions,  much 
that  goes  to  make,  and  actually  does  make,  the 
excellent  moral  sentiments  nugatory ;  but  it  is 
plain  that  amid  the  wide  wastes  of  Moslem  belief 
flower  many  just  notions,  indeed  all  the  more  fun- 
damental ones,  of  how  men  should  conduct  them- 
selves. We  should  expect  as  much  from  a  book 
that  acknowledges  both  Moses  and  Jesus. 

The  Greeks  were  taught  by  the  Egyptians, 
and   the   Romans  by   the  Greeks.      We  should 


MAIN    ETHICS.  249 

therefore  expect  to  find  substantially  the  same 
moral  ideas  prevailing  among  these  three  peoples. 
We  do  find  them.  One  could  gather  a  glorious 
anthology  of  maxims  and  precepts  for  the  govern- 
ment of  life,  not  only  from  the  pages  of  such  sages 
as  Socrates  and  Plato  and  Epictetus  and  Cicero 
and  Seneca  and  Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus,  but 
also  from  the  whole  range  of  classic  authorship — 
from  Homer  and  Herodotus  downward  through 
the  list  of  poets  and  historians  to  the  latest  Ro- 
man times;  men  who  doubtless  better  expressed, 
and  did  more  to  form,  the  average  thought  of  the 
people  than  did  all  the  speculations  of  the  schools 
in  Academy,  Garden,  Porch,  and  Tusculum.  Much 
of  the  testimony  is  incidental  and  indirect.  Neith- 
er poet  nor  historian  nor  biographer  nor  orator 
lectures  on  ethics.  And  yet  through  the  Iliad, 
Odyssey,  and  ^neid;  through  the  dramas  of  ^s- 
chylus,  Euripides,  and  Sophocles ;  through  the 
fables  of  ^Esop,  the  Lives  of  Plutarch,  and  the 
histories  of  Herodotus  and  Thucydides  and  Xeno- 
phon  and  Livy  and  Sallust  and  Tacitus  and  Cae- 
sar, are  scattered  commendations  of  almost  every 
virtue  and  condemnations  of  almost  every  vice. 
Indeed,  those  old  classics,  speaking  out  of  the 
tombs  of  dead  languages,  are  more  in  harmony 
with  common  morals  than  were  the  leading  de- 
istical  writings  of  the  last  century,  and  on  the 


250  UXIVERSAI.   BELIEFS. 

whole  more  wholesome  companions  for  the  young 
than  an  unexpurgated  Pope  or  Dryden  or  Shakes- 
peare or  Goethe  would  be.  Shame  on  these  shame- 
less children  of  Christian  countries  and  unchris- 
tian morals ! 

It  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  collect  bits  of  di- 
rect moral  teaching  from  the  broad  fields  of  Greek 
and  Roman  writings.  The  very  fact  that  they 
depict  and  praise  so  many  illustrious  characters 
shows  that  the  people  at  large,  as  well  as  the  au- 
thors, must  have  had  sound  ideas  as  to  what  men 
should  be  and  how  they  should  behave.  Such 
simplicity  of  living,  such  government  of  the  pas- 
sions, such  fidelity  to  supposed  duty,  such  utter 
truthfulness,  such  inflexible  justice,  such  placa- 
bleness  and  generosity  and  mercifulness,  such  self- 
sacrifice  for  the  public  good,  such  greatness  of 
soul,  such  careful  honesty  in  dealing  with  great 
public  trusts,  such  blamelessness  as  fathers,  hus- 
bands, sons,  citizens,  rulers,  as  Plutarch  and  oth- 
ers have  described  and  held  up  to  admiration,  at 
least  show  that  those  old  writers  were  not  want- 
ing themselves  in  just  ideas  of  a  noble  manhood, 
and  that  they  felt  warranted  in  assuming  the  ex- 
istence of  similar  ideas  in  the  people  for  whom 
they  wrote — show  that  the  people  at  large  had 
among  them  from  time  to  time,  in  addition  to 
their  better  sort  of  philosophers,  the  most  impres- 


MAIN   ETHICS.  25 1 

sive  and  commanding  of  all  moral  teachers,  viz. , 
actual  examples  of  the  most  shining  sort  of  right- 
living  men.  To  conceive  of  such  men  as  Socrates 
and  Phocion  and  Aristides,  as  the  Catos  and  Scip- 
ios  and  Antonines,  was  itself  a  liberal  education 
in  ethics. 

Hardly  less  was  it  to  conceive  of  such  moral 
monsters  as  sometimes  appeared.  How  the  clas- 
sic pens  smote  their  memories!  How  the  people 
gazed  with  open-eyed  horror  and  hatred  on  the 
Neros  and  Caligulas  of  their  time,  and  knew  them 
to  be  horrible  and  hateful!  These  wild  beasts  in 
human  form,  too,  were  great  instructors  in  mor- 
als. The  vices  writ  large  are  powerful  teachers 
of  virtue.  Depravity  enlarged  to  the  size  of  a 
mountain  can  be  seen  from  afar,  and  have  all  its 
ugly  scars  and  sores  counted.  ]\Ien  blessed  with 
all  the  virtues  scarcely  speak  out  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments more  loudly  than  do  men  cursed  with 
all  the  vices. 

But  let  us  come  more  closely  to  particulars. 
What  are  the  views  of  mankind  at  large  as  to  the 
following  items  of  character  and  conduct  ? 

I.    AGNOSTICISM   IN    RELIGION. 

Some  persons  here  and  there  claim  that  man 
does  not  know,  and  even  that  from  the  nature  of 
the  case  he  cannot  know,  anything  on  religious 


252  UNIVERSAL   BEI.IEFS. 

subjects,  cannot  know  even  in  the  way  of  a  rea- 
sonable faith.  But  all  the  sacred  books  of  the 
world  assume  and  teach  the  contrary.  The  great 
masses  of  mankind  in  all  known  times  have  be- 
lieved the  contrary.  For,  as  we  have  seen,  they 
have  always  insisted  that  men  believe  in  a  Su- 
preme Deity,  in  worshipping  and  serving  him,  in 
a  future  state  for  man,  in  his  responsibility  in  that 
state  for  his  conduct  here,  and  so  on.  Not  only 
so,  but  wherever  they  have  found  a  man  who 
seemed  to  have  no  religious  faith  whatever  (a  very 
rare  case)  they  have  counted  him  a  fool,  a  mad- 
man, or  a  heinous  sinner  worthy  perhaps  of  mob- 
violence  or  of  the  sword  of  the  magistrate.  They 
have  had  no  patience  with  such  nonsense.  Out- 
side of  Christendom,  Comte  would  have  been  a  so- 
cial outcast,  if  not  a  victim  to  popular  indigna- 
tion. 

What  views  the  Bible  takes  of  fundamental 
ignorance  in  religious  things  it  is  not  hard  to  dis- 
cover. It  nowhere  allows  that  a  man  can  inno- 
cently be  without  religious  faith,  especially  as  to 
such  matters  as  have  been  mentioned.  "With- 
out faith  it  is  impossible  to  please"  the  God  of 
the  Scriptures.  He  says  that  "the  unbelieving 
shall  have  their  part  in  the  lake  that  burneth  with 
fire  and  brimstone."  An  influential  faith  in  Christ 
and  his  teachingr  is  the  formal  condition  of  salva- 


MAIN   ETHICS.  253 

tion  from  permanent  ruin.  A  neutral  attitude  is 
hardly  less  offensive  than  a  hostile  one.  Indeed, 
neutrality  is  counted  as  hostility.  "He  that  is 
not  with  Me  is  against  me. ' '  The  tabula  rasa  has 
no  favor  in  the  courts  of  the  Bible. 

II.    INDIFFERENCE  TO   RELIGION. 

When  men  say,  as  they  often  do,  that  they  feel 
no  interest  in  religious  subjects,  some  of  us  won- 
der at  them.  We  do  more ;  we  condemn  them. 
It  seems  to  us  that  such  men  are  unjustifiable  be- 
fore the  tribunal  of  common  sense,  as  well  as  be- 
fore every  other  tribunal  that  claims  jurisdiction 
in  such  matters.  That  of  the  Bible,  for  example. 
To  care  little  or  nothing  for  such  matters  as  God, 
the  soul,  responsibility,  immortality,  salvation, 
duty — for  such  questions  as.  Whence  came  I  ? 
Whither  am  I  going?  How  can  I  best  know  and 
please  the  Supreme,  get  pardon,  recover  from  an 
evil  character,  provide  for  an  endless  hereafter  ? — 
to  feel  no  interest  in  such  great  questions  and 
themes  is  grossly  against  both  spirit  and  letter  of 
New  Testament  and  Old.  How  can  reasonable 
beings  be  so  unreasonable?  Are  they  stones,  stone 
dead?  Or  are  they  merely  asleep?  Awake,  thou 
that  sleepest !  The  Bible  is  throwing  torches  at 
you,  if  perchance  you  may  be  set  on  fire — such 
torches  as  these:   "  The  knowledsre  of  the  Holv  is 


254  UNIVERSAI.  BEI.IKFS. 

understanding. "  "If  thou  criest  after  knowledge 
and  liftest  up  thy  voice  for  understanding;  if  thou 
seekest  her  as  silver  and  searchest  for  her  as  for 
hidden  treasures,  then  shalt  thou  find  the  knowl- 
edge of  God."  And  some  men  have  been  kindled 
by  such  teachings.  Nothing  interests  them  so 
much  as  religious  topics.  They  study  them  day 
and  night.  They  are  "zealously  affected"  to- 
wards them.  "They  do  with  their  might"  this 
thing  which  their  hand  finds  to  do.  To  know  the 
main  religious  truths  and  to  conform  the  char- 
acter and  life  to  them  seems  to  be  deserving  of 
more  outlay  of  feeling  and  effort  than  anything 
else  whatever — than  any  secular  learning,  wealth, 
honor,  pleasure.  These  are  the  children  of  the 
noble  Bereans.  But  some  of  them  have  been 
called  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

But  the  Bible  is  not  alone  in  condemning  in- 
difference to  religion.  If  we  define  religion  to  be 
the  great  doctrines  already  considered,  together 
with  conduct  to  match,  then  all  sacred  books  and 
practically  all  mankind  do  the  same.  For  these 
doctrines  are  taught  in  all  systems  of  religion,  and 
not  one  of  these  systems  tolerates  indifference  to 
itself,  especially  as  to  its  main  things.  The  Mo- 
hammedans have  no  patience  with  the  man  who 
cares  little  or  nothing  for  the  teachings  of  Mo- 
hammed,  the   Buddhists   no   patience  with  him 


MAIN    ETHICS.  255 

who  cares  nothing  for  the  teachings  of  Buddha, 
the  Brahminical  religionists  no  patience  with  him 
who  feels  no  interest  in  the  teachings  of  their 
Vedas  and  Shasters.  On  the  contrary,  the  man 
who  is  zealously  interested  in  them,  more  zeal- 
ously than  in  anything  else,  stands  high  above  all 
others  on  the  roll  of  honor.  This  is  everywhere 
the  theory,  though  sometimes  sorely  against  the 
practice. 

III.    HOSTILITY  TO   RELIGION. 

If  all  the  creeds  and  nations  object  to  indiffer- 
ence to  religion  as  represented  by  those  great 
truths  common  to  all  of  them,  much  more  do  they 
object  to  that  active  hostility  which  is  sometimes 
displayed. 

The  fundamentals  considered  in  foreeoine 
chapters,  and  which  we  will  call  Doctrines  of  Hu- 
manity on  account  of  their  well-nigh  universal 
acceptance,  have  two  classes  of  enemies — the  se- 
cret and  the  open.  The  secret  enemy  professes 
friendship,  sometimes  loudly.  You  can  hear  the 
lips  of  Judas  when  he  kisses  his  Master.  You  can 
hear  the  "God  be  with  you  "  of  Joab  as  he  quietly 
inserts  his  dagger  under  the  fifth  rib  of  Amasa.  A 
traitor?  Yes,  that  is  the  word,  though  he  does 
not  like  it.  But  he  likes  still  less  the  odium  in- 
curred by  attacking  openly  the  foundations  of  re- 


256  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

lio^ion.  So  he  works  under  cover.  He  insinuates 
difficulties,  he  hints  disparagements,  he  weakens 
old  defences  in  the  name  of  candid  though  reluct- 
ant science,  he  demands  a  restatement  of  old 
truths,  he  rejects  the  strong  old-time  arguments 
that  have  been  marching  on  for  thousands  of 
years,  and  whose  "eyes  are  not  yet  dim  nor  nat- 
ural force  abated,"  in  favor  of  another  of  his  own 
that  halts  on  both  feet  and  is  blind.  This  is  the 
meanest  and  not  the  least  dangerous  enemy  reli- 
gion has  to  encounter. 

Then  there  are  the  open  enemies.  Their  bit- 
terness or  imprudence  or,  if  you  please,  their  hon- 
esty, defies  concealment.  They  declare  war  by 
proclamation.  They  ridicule  the  doctrines  of  hu- 
manity. They  denounce  them.  They  assert  and 
argue  against  them.  They  talk  at  street  corners 
and  stores,  they  give  lectures,  they  WTite  books, 
they  capture  newspapers  and  magazines  and  some- 
times a  college;  they  especially  seek  the  ears  and 
eyes  of  the  young.  Sometimes  they  affect  the 
calm,  judicial,  philosophical  tone,  and  sometimes 
they  almost  foam  at  the  mouth  and  blaspheme. 
Some  are  graduates  of  colleges;  more  are  gradu- 
ates of  factories,  liquor -saloons,  and  anarchist 
clubs.  Men  of  the  Paine  and  Most  sort  stamp  on 
the  great  religious  doctrines  that  are  common  to 
all  religions  as  they  would  on  a  serpent. 


MAIN    ETHICS.  257 

Such  men,  whether  recognized  as  open  or  se- 
cret assailants,  assailing  as  they  do  what  is  com- 
mon and  fundamental  to  all  religions,  would  of 
course  be  frowned  upon  by  all.  From  the  nature 
of  the  case,  the  world  at  large  would  regard  them 
as  enemies  of  the  human  race  as  well  as  of  heaven. 
More  than  this,  in  many,  if  not  most,  countries 
and  times  such  people  would  not  have  been  tol- 
erated. They  would  have  been  boycotted.  They 
would  have  incurred  personal  danger.  They 
would  have  been  mobbed  or  handed  over  to  the 
civil  power  as  nuisances  that  ought  to  be  abated. 
Perhaps  they  would  have  been  invited  to  drink 
the  hemlock  by  some  Committee  of  Public  Safety. 
In  some  way  they  would  have  had  focused  upon 
them  a  blaze  of  public  indignation. 

IV.    PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

Men  who  do  not  attack  religion  in  any  way, 
who  even  profess  to  believe  in  it  and  to  have  con- 
siderable intellectual  interest  in  its  problems,  often 
live  in  practical  atheism.  They  do  not  worship 
any  deity,  nor  consult  his  will,  nor  make  him 
any  offering,  nor  pray  to  him,  nor  visit  his  tem- 
ple, nor  do  anything  for  his  honor;  they  are  not 
kept  back  from  anything  they  like  by  the  fear  of 
him,  nor  persuaded  to  anything  they  do  not  like 
bv  a  regard  to  his  approbation.     They  are  practi- 


258  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

cal  atheists.  Their  lives  are  wholly  vacant  of 
God.  Whatever  correct  notions  they  may  have 
about  him  are  wholly  uninfluential  on  their  con- 
duct. Their  theory  and  practice  are  divorced 
parties.  The  two  are  not  on  speaking  terms  with 
each  other.  To  all  intents  and  purposes  divinity 
is  to  them  nonentity. 

Set  a  man  of  this  stamp,  with  all  his  godless 
ways  fully  open  to  view,  in  the  midst  of  any 
heathen  or  Moslem  population,  what  would  they 
think  of  him  ?  Very  unfavorable  things,  of  course ; 
for  his  ways  run  counter  to  the  whole  current  of 
their  ideas,  their  usages,  their  traditions,  and,  if 
they  have  them,  their  sacred  books.  It  would 
not  much  help  his  case  with  them  for  him  to  say 
with  his  lips  that  he  believes  in  a  God  while  his 
whole  life  besides  is  loudly  discounting  such  a 
Being.  They  would  be  apt  to  think  that  the 
man  has  added  hypocrisy  to  his  other  virtues;  and 
they  would  look  askance  at  him.  They  would 
persecute  him  with  their  thoughts  if  not  with 
their  hands.  If  free  to  act  themselves  out,  they 
would  soon  make  him  feel  something  more  than 
want  of  harmony  with  his  surroundings.  Per- 
haps it  would  be  venturesome  to  insure  his  per- 
sonal safety.  Certainly  it  would  not  be  venture- 
some to  insure  his  having  very  uncomfortable 
neighbors. 


MAIN    ETHICS.  259 

But  how  would  he  fare  in  Christian  lands? 
Better,  no  doubt,  so  far  as  outw^ard  treatment  is 
concerned.  We  are  getting  used  to  such  people, 
and  we  believe  in  religious  liberty,  so  we  do  not 
persecute  him.  We  disdain  to  proceed  to  such 
uncivilized  extremities.  And  yet,  as  many  as  be- 
lieve the  Bible,  with  its  strong  words  about  those 
' '  who  say  and  do  not, ' '  hold  his  attitude  to  be 
utterly  indefensible.  Indeed,  as  many  as  believe 
in  acting  reasonably  and  self-consistently  refuse 
to  stand  up  for  him.  Nay,  he  does  not  stand  up 
for  himself.  As  a  sensible  man  he  cannot  but 
allow  that  to  build  his  life  on  the  assumption  that 
there  is  no  God,  while  actually  believing  or  even 
suspecting  the  contrary,  is  not  the  proper  thing 
to  be  done.  Though  multitudes  in  Christendom 
act  in  this  inconsistent  way,  not  one  of  them 
would  think  of  setting  himself  to  justify  it,  though 
many  might  try  to  extenuate  it. 

V.    UNCONSCIENTIOUSNESS. 

There  are  worse  people  than  some  practical 
atheists,  for  these  may  have  some  regard  to  what 
is  right  between  man  and  man  although  com- 
pletely ignoring  God.  I  mean  people  who  seem 
to  have  no  consciences.  As  far  as  one  can  see, 
they  are  utterly  regardless  of  all  considerations  of 
right  and  wrong.     They  are  restrained  from  some 


20O  UNIVERSAL   BEUEFS. 

things  by  the  laws  of  the  land  or  by  public  opin- 
ion or  by  a  regard  to  self-interest,  but  never  by  a 
regard  to  what  is  right.  Undisguised  men  of  this 
stamp  are  very  rare;  it  costs  too  much  in  the  way 
of  social  standing  for  a  man  to  wxar  on  his  fore- 
head in  capitals,  "Utterly  Unscrupulous." 
So  the  utterly  unscrupulous  men  commonly  re- 
fuse to  appear  as  such.  But  once  in  a  while  a 
man  is  found  so  shameless  and  reckless  as  not 
only  to  make  no  secret  of  the  fact  that  he  recog- 
nizes no  moral  obligation  whatever,  but  even  to 
glory  in  it.  "Whatever  else  he  may  be,  he  is  no 
hypocrite."  He  offers  to  argue  with  you  and  to 
prove  from  Hume  and  others  that  virtue  and  vice 
are  mere  names — mere  superstitions  and  priest- 
craft. He  has  gradually  come  to  this  position  by 
abusing  his  conscience.  And  now  he  is  a  repro- 
bate, his  movements  no  more  influenced  by  a 
moral  sense  than  are  the  waves  of  the  sea. 

How^  our  Bible  views  such  men — men  "past 
feeling,"  whose  consciences  are  "seared  with  a 
hot  iron,"  whose  very  "mind  and  conscience  are 
defiled,"  who  in  morals  "neither  fear  God  nor 
regard  man,"  but  have  been  "given  over  to  strong 
delusion,  to  believe  a  lie" — lies  on  the  surface; 
hardly  more  so,  however,  than  do  the  views  of  all 
other  so-called  sacred  books.  Put  a  thorouo^hlv 
unscrupulous  man  under  the  craze  of  anv  of  the 


MAIN    ETHICS.  261 

Gentile  bibles,  ancient  or  modern,  and  not  one 
would  approve  him.  They  all  recognise  the  re- 
ality of  moral  obligation,  declare  its  paramount 
authority,  take  it  for  granted  that  few  are  so  for- 
saken of  Deity  and  common  sense  as  to  think  a 
negative.  They  may  mistake  as  to  what  is  duty; 
but  as  to  there  being  such  a  thing  as  duty,  there 
is  but  one  verdict  among  them ;  only  the  one  ver- 
dict is  in  different  languages.  If  any  man,  on 
hearing  it  spoken  in  Arabic  or  Sanscrit  or  Cinga- 
lese or  Chinese,  should  begin  to  scoff,  they  would 
threaten  him  with  the  wrath  of  heaven  and 
earth. 

You  could  not  place  such  a  man,  stripped  of 
all  disguises,  anywhere  out  of  Christendom  with- 
out his  being  looked  on  as  a  monster — a  monster 
and  curiosity.  Not  that  there  is  not  a  plenty  of 
unconscientiousness  about,  but  it  is  not,  in  general, 
of  the  stark,  undecorated,  downright  kind.  The 
bitter  is  sweetened  somewhat;  the  ugly  is  painted 
somewhat;  the  deformed  has  called  to  its  aid  the 
great  resources  of  dress.  So  the  man  does  not 
know  himself.  But  he  knows  that  other  man 
who  has  been  brought  out  under  the  eye  of  the 
sun  and  peeled,  coat  after  coat,  till  the  core  of 
him  is  reached,  and  found  disavowing  all  moral 
principle — knows  him  to  be  a  public  danger.  So 
the  public  pronounces  him.    Everywhere  he  would 


262  UNIVERSAI.    BELIEFS. 

be  apt  to  get  a  treatment  so  uncomfortable  as  to 
make  him  think  it  best  to  retire  under  cover  from 
the  sharp-shooting  into  some  pretence  at  least  of 
not  being  wholly  without  principle — into  at  least 
some  apparent  respect  to  the  universal  ought  and 
oiigJit  not.  A  community  may  for  a  time  so  lapse 
into  the  morbid  and  dreadful  that  it  may  be  fash- 
ionable to  pretend  to  be  without  scruples  of  any 
kind;  but,  from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  such  a 
state  of  things  cannot  last.  Paris  will  not  be  long 
in  finding  out  that  society  itself  does  not  last  un- 
der such  circumstances. 

VI.    SELFISHNESS. 

It  is  plain  to  the  plainest  understanding  that 
if  every  man  should  pursue  his  own  objects  with- 
out any  regard  whatever  to  the  interests  of  others, 
the  result  would  be  endless  antagonisms,  embroil- 
ments, and  finally  social  disorganization.  Ac- 
cordingly there  has  never  been  a  sacred  book  or 
government  that  has  not  forbidden  its  subjects  to 
act  under  the  law  of  unlimited  selfishness.  Every 
man  must  remember  that  he  is  one  of  many.  In 
his  eager  pursuit  of  his  own  welfare  he  must  be 
careful  not  to  ride  down  other  people.  Even  the 
steeple-chase,  with  the  fox  in  full  view,  must 
respect  my  harvest-field.  So  governments  under- 
take to  stand  at  all  crossings  where  the  streams  of 


MAIN    ETHICS.  263 

business  and  pleasure  come  together,  and  see  to  it 
that  no  man,  in  hot  pursuit  of  his  own  bubble, 
tramples  in  the  dust  the  persons  and  bubbles  of 
other  people.  This  is  their  business.  They  must 
at  least  pretend  to  be  equitable,  to  do  justice  to 
all;  which  means  that  the  selfish  greed  or  ambi- 
tion or  pleasure-seeking  of  one  man  shall  not  be 
allowed  to  trench  on  the  rights  of  others. 

Did  you  ever  see  a  wholly  selfish  man  ?  Per- 
haps not.  But  you  have  seen  a  man  who,  in  your 
view,  would  stop  at  nothing  safe  to  himself  in 
order  to  reach  his  object;  who,  if  the  comfort  or 
the  property  or  the  health  or  the  morals  or  even 
the  life  (not  to  say  the  soul)  of  his  neighbor  stood 
in  the  way,  w^ould  not  visibly  hesitate  to  trample 
it  down.  He  is  bound  to  succeed  at  whatever 
cost.  He  goes  straight  to  his  mark,  let  what  will 
suffer.  Let  all  who  are  on  his  track  look  out  for 
the  engine.  It  will  neither  stop  nor  swerve  nor 
ring  a  bell — the  heartless  thing.  O  rumseller, 
will  you  not  stop  for  the  tears  and  groans  and 
hunger  and  rags  and  despair  of  the  homes  you  are 
crushing?  No.  O  director,  will  you  not  refuse 
to  climb  to  fortune  on  the  distresses  and  financial 
ruin  of  the  small  stockholders  that  lie  under  your 
feet  ?  No.  O  soldier,  can  we  not  persuade  you 
away  from  the  throne  w^hich  you  can  only  reach 
by  wading  through  deeps  of  blood  ?     No. 


264  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

Set  sucli  a  man,  unmasked  and  undecorated 
in  any  way,  in  full  daylight  among  the  rudest  of 
people.  What  do  they  think  of  him  ?  There  is 
not  a  savage  so  rude  as  not  to  see  that  such  self- 
ishness is  monstrous,  that  a  plenty  of  it  let  loose 
on  the  world  means  endless  injustice  and  misery. 
Only  let  everybody  be  like  that  man,  and  drive 
towards  his  own  particular  goal  with  the  same 
recklessness  of  consequences  to  all  others,  what 
concussion  and  wrecks  there  would  be  !  How 
much  cultivation  or  goodness  does  it  take  to  see 
that!  As  little  does  it  take  to  see  that  the  unself- 
ish principle  which  takes  loving  account  of  all 
interests  in  proportion  to  their  value,  which  re- 
fuses to  sacrifice  the  public  to  the  individual,  is 
the  child  of  reason,  the  mother  of  peace,  the  friend 
of  the  world,  and  kin  of  heaven. 

But  have  you  ever  seen  a  wholly  unselfish  per- 
son? Certainly  not.  But  I  have  seen  many  a  man 
in  whom  the  principle  of  unselfishness  was  en- 
throned;  who  looked  with  mighty  aversion  on  the 
opposite  principle  and  fought  all  tendency  to  it  in 
himself  with  downright  heartiness  and  scornful- 
ness;  who,  instead  of  being  willing  to  sacrifice 
others  to  himself,  much  preferred  to  sacrifice  him- 
self to  others;  to  whom  it  was  enough  to  condemn 
any  undertaking  to  know  that,  in  order  to  succeed 
in  it,  he  must  damage  his  neighbor  one  whit.    To 


MAIN    ETHICS.  265 

be  sure,  his  anxiety  to  do  no  harm  made  his  path 
somewhat  crooked.  A  straight  line  through  a 
crowd  means  that  somebody  will  be  hurt.  So  he 
wound  in  and  out,  made  all  manner  of  detours,  lest 
he  should  hurt  this  man's  feelings  or  that  man's 
property  or  the  other  man's  conscience.  Yes, 
somewhat  crooked;  but  then  there  is  such  a  thine 
as  a  blessed  crookedness.  The  curve  line  is  some- 
times the  line  of  beauty  as  well  as  of  duty.  So 
he  felt;  and  so  he  would  go  farther  and  fare  worse 
rather  than  follow  any  chase,  however  exciting, 
across  his  neighbor's  wheat-field. 

Place  such  a  man  by  the  side  of  the  other  in 
any  age  or  nation,  and  the  public  would  morally 
choose  between  them  in  a  flash  of  lightning.  The 
one  would  command  universal  approbation,  the 
other  universal  condemnation.  There  is  not  a 
man  between  the  poles  who  would  not  like  to  be 
himself  treated  on  benevolent  principles  rather 
than  on  selfish,  or  who  would  fail  to  see  the 
beauty  and  righteousness  of  such  treatment.  If 
given  his  choice  as  to  whether  he  would  have  for 
neighbors  men  who  would  have  a  sacred  regard 
to  his  welfare  as  well  as  to  their  own,  and  would 
never  allow  the  latter  to  override  the  former,  or 
men  who  would  not  hesitate  to  ride  Bucephalus 
over  him  rough-shod  for  the  sake  of  every  petty 
convenience  to  themselves,  they  would  not  long 


266  UNIVERSAL   BKUEFS. 

*' halt  between  two  opinions"— hardly  longer  than 
the  Christian  who  has  been  taught  to  "look  not 
only  on  his  own  things,  but  also  on  the  things  of 
others." 

VII.  VOLUNTARY  HARMEULNESS  OR  USELESSNESS. 

There  are  misanthropes.  There  are  mischief- 
loving  people  who  toss  about  ' '  arrows,  firebrands, 
and  death ' '  in  sport.  ' '  The  poison  of  asps  is  under 
their  lips,  their  feet  are  swift  to  shed  blood,  de- 
struction and  misery  are  in  their  path,  they  can- 
not sleep  unless  they  have  caused  some  to  fall." 
You  may,  if  you  please,  call  them  nihilists,  for 
they  deserve  the  name.  They  delight  in  seeing 
the  downfall,  of  characters  and  properties  and  rep- 
utations, and  will  assist  the  ruin  if  need  be.  They 
circulate  slanders.  They  set  families  by  the  ears. 
They  corrupt  the  young  and  set  them  on  those 
downward  courses  that  end  in  perdition  and  the 
breaking  of  parents'  hearts.  In  short,  they  en- 
courage in  the  community  everything  that  is  bad 
and  discourage  everything  that  is  good.  The 
morals,  the  business,  the  reputation  of  their  place 
are  the  worse  for  their  living  in  it ;  so  that  the 
people  are  glad  to  have  the  nuisance  abated, 
w^hether  by  emigration  or  by  death.  For  "they 
are  a  smoke  in  the  nose,  a  fire  that  burneth  all  the 
day." 


MAIN    ETHICS.  267 

Such  a  man  does  not  need  to  be  at  the  heart 
of  Christian  civilization  in  order  to  find  general 
condemnation.  Men  everywhere,  whether  named 
after  Mohammed  or  Confucius  or  Zoroaster  or 
Christ,  instinctively  count  him  a  criminal.  He 
knows  better  than  to  live  such  a  harmful  life,  and 
all  observers  know  that  he  knows  better.  Their 
thoughts  and  eyes  and  lips  accuse  him.  The  tur- 
ban condemns  him  in  Turkey,  the  queue  in  Chi- 
na, and  the  eagle's  feather  in  the  wilds  of  Oregon. 
He  is  a  Nero,  a  Robespierre — perhaps  in  a  large 
sphere,  perhaps  in  a  small  one.  It  makes  no  dif- 
ference whether  he  curses  a  kingdom  or  a  kennel. 
"One  murder  makes  a  villain,  a  thousand  mur- 
ders a  hero,"  is  only  a  grim  sarcasm. 

Said  an  eminent  Scotch  philosopher,  "We  can 
imagine  vessels  sent  on  voyages  of  benevolence, 
to  diffuse  over  the  world  the  blessings  of  a  pure 
religion;  we  can  imagine  voyages  of  this  kind  to 
diffuse  the  improvements  of  our  sciences  and  arts. 
But  w^hat  should  we  think  of  a  voyage  of  which 
the  sole  object  was  to  teach  the  world  that  those 
who  intentionally  do  good  to  society  ought  to  be 
objects  of  greater  regard  than  he  whose  life  has 
been  occupied  in  plans  to  injure  it,  or  at  least  as 
many  individuals  of  it  as  his  power  could  reach  ? 
What  shore  is  there  at  which  such  a  vessel  could 
arrive,  however  barren  the  soil  and  savage  the 


26S  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

inhabitants,  where  this  simple  doctrine  which  it 
came  to  diflfuse  would  be  regarded  as  giving  any 
instruction  ?  The  half-naked  animal  that  has  no 
hut  in  which  to  shelter  himself,  no  provision  be- 
yond the  precarious  chase  of  the  day,  whose  lan- 
guage of  numeration  does  not  extend  beyond  three 
or  four,  and  who  knows  God  only  as  something 
which  produces  thunder  and  the  whirlwind — even 
this  miserable  creature  would  turn  away  from  his 
civilized  instructors  with  contempt,  as  if  he  had 
not  heard  anything  of  which  he  was  not  equally 
aware  before.  The  vessel  which  carried  out  that 
simple  primary  essential  truth  of  morals  might 
return  as  it  went.  It  could  not  make  a  single 
convert  because  there  would  not  have  been  one 
who  had  any  doubts  to  be  removed. ' ' 

Even  if  a  man  stops  short  of  being  a  public 
nuisance  and  we  can  only  say  of  him  that  he  is  a 
useless  fellow,  he  gets  universal  disapproval.  Try 
him.  Plant  him  in  any  place,  within  Christen- 
dom or  out  of  it,  and  let  it  be  understood  that  he 
is  one  who,  in  the  face  of  the  woes  and  wants  of 
his  fellows,  is  pure  zero  and  does  not  care  to  be 
otherwise;  both  the  heads  and  hearts  of  all  men 
will  shake  themselves  against  him.  They  will, 
as  they  look,  instinctively  feel  that  he  is  not  what 
he  ought  to  be.  He  is  a  dry  stick.  There  is  no 
sap  nor  use  in  him.     He  is  not  even  serviceable  as 


MAIN    ETHICS.  26-) 

ballast  in  the  public  ship.  So  the  public  feel, 
and  even  the  men  who  are  unconsciously  like  him 
feel  the  same.  And  they  feel  it  all  the  more  if 
the  worthless  fellow  stands  side  by  side  with  an- 
other man  of  the  opposite  character,  a  man  whose 
whole  life  is  a  general  benediction  and  meant  to 
be  such,  who  cumbers  no  ground,  who  buries  no 
talent,  who  is  all  eye  to  see  opportunities  of  being 
of  service  and  all  hands  to  use  them.  God  bless 
him!  "That  is  the  sort  of  man  for  me,"  says 
everybody,  whether  he  wants  a  neighbor,  a  ser- 
vant, a  son,  a  father,  or  a  king. 

In  fact,  the  Bible  and  Christian  morals,  when 
they  hurl  their  stones  of  condemnation  at  the  man 
who  "cannot  sleep  except  he  has  caused  some  to 
fall,"  when  they  demand  not  merely  that  men  be 
"harmless  as  doves,"  but  that  they  "do  good  to 
all  men  as  they  have  opportunity,"  only  put  their 
indorsement  on  the  law  written  in  the  human 
heart  everywhere.  It  is  a  very  great  indorsement — 
worth  far  more,  and  far  more  legibly  and  boldly 
written,  than  nature's  signature;  just  as  the  name 
on  the  back  of  a  note  may  be  vastly  fairer  and 
weightier  commercially  than  the  name  on  its  face. 
And  yet  it  is  a  mere  indorsement,  with  a  mighty 
pen,  of  a  law  as  old  as  humanity,  and  so  written 
into  its  substance  that  neither  time  nor  sin  has 
been  able  to  erase  it. 


270  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

VIII.    INGRATITUDE. 

You  have  done  him  great  favors,  what  he  him- 
self considers  such.  When  he  was  hungry  you  fed 
him;  naked,  you  clothed  him;  sick  and  in  prison, 
you  visited  him.  Bankruptcy  stared  him  in  the 
face:  you  indorsed  for  him.  His  good  name  was 
attacked:  you  stood  up  for  it.  His  crops  were 
suffering:  neglecting  your  own,  you  came  to  the 
rescue.  His  life  was  in  danger:  you  perilled  your 
own  life  to  pull  him  out  of  the  water  or  the  fire. 

But  the  man  is  ungrateful.  What  he  has  re- 
ceived he  coolly  takes  as  his  right.  He  never  says, 
''Thank  you,"  nor  looks  it  nor  feels  it.  Not  a 
ripple  of  tenderness  goes  out  to  the  man  to  whom 
he  owes  so  much.  Will  he  turn  aside  in  the  least 
from  his  path  to  do  his  benefactor  a  service?  No. 
Will  he  give  a  penny  for  his  need  ?  No.  Will 
he  give  a  crust  for  his  hunger?  No.  Will  he 
speak  a  word  for  him  when  others  are  speaking 
against  him  ?  No.  It  almost  brings  tears  to  our 
eyes  to  think  what,  in  your  magnanimity  of  self- 
denial,  you  have  done  for  him.  But  he — his  heart 
is  flint  of  the  hardest  sort.  Could  one  break  it 
with  a  sledge  ? 

What  does  the  world  think  of  such  an  iuQ^rate? 
I  say  the  ivorld^  not  that  small  part  of  it  whose 
consciences  have  been  instructed  by  the  Christian 


MAIN   ETHICS.  271 

religion.  Put  him  fairly  before  the  natives  of 
Dahomey  and  the  savages  would  cry  shame  upon 
him.  He  knows  that  if  he  himself  were  treated 
in  such  a  heartless  manner,  under  like  circum- 
stances, he  would  feel  wronged  ;  would  feel  it  a 
righteous  thing  if  all  his  fetishes  and  gods  should 
break  out  in  judgment  on  the  thankless  wretch, 
especially  if  he  should  happen  to  see  the  man  in 
sharp  contrast  with  the  opposite  character.  We 
need  not  go  out  of  a  Christian  land  to  know  how 
the  worst  heathen  would  feel ;  for  a  Christian  land 
always  contains  more  or  less  of  the  worst  speci- 
mens of  heathenism — men  darkened  with  the 
worst  possible  error  and  imbruted  with  the  worst 
possible  vice.  And  never  yet  has  the  Bible - 
reader,  as  he  has  explored  the  slums  of  our  cities, 
met  with  a  man  sunk  so  low  as  to  stand  up  for  the 
innocence  of  ingratitude,  unless  he  denies  the 
reality  of  moral  distinctions  altogether.  Though 
perhaps  a  thankless  wretch  himself,  he  would  try 
to  hide  under  some  cover.  He  dare  not  stand  out 
uncovered  to  meet  the  scornful  wrath  of  mankind. 

IX.    RETURNING   EVIL   FOR   GOOD. 

A  still  stronger  case  than  the  last  is  that  where 
a  man  returns  hate  for  your  love,  malediction  for 
your  benediction,  great  harms  for  your  great  ben- 
efits.    He  is  not  content  with  the  monstrousness 


2  72  UNIVERSAL  BEUEFS. 

of  ingratitude.  He  goes  on  to  the  greater  mon- 
strousness  of  returning  evil  for  good.  The  class 
to  which  he  belongs  is  thus  described  by  David: 
''When  they  were  sick  my  clothing  was  sack- 
cloth. I  humbled  my  soul  with  fasting,  I  behaved 
as  though  they  had  been  my  friends  or  brothers. 
But  in  my  adversity  they  rejoiced  and  gathered 
themselves  together  against  me."  Perhaps  he 
dislikes  your  character,  which  is  such  a  striking 
contrast  to  his  own.  Perhaps  he  notices  that  this 
character  of  yours  draws  to  you  an  honor  and  af- 
fection in  the  community  which  are  not  accorded 
to  himself.  So  envy  and  jealousy  begin  to  work; 
and  now  it  is  hate  and  now  it  is  malice  prepense, 
going  out  into  acts  of  deliberate  mischief.  He 
lies  in  wait  for  his  friend.  He  smites  his  good 
name.  He  appropriates  or  destroys  his  property. 
He  misleads  his  children.  Not  a  harm  comes  to 
the  good  man  but  he  is  glad,  not  a  good  but  he  is 
sorry.  So  he  gives  a  "double  and  twisted"  de- 
fiance to  the  Scripture  that  says,  "See  that  none 
render  evil  for  evil  to  any." 

One  need  not  be  afraid  to  put  such  conduct  as 
that  before  the  most  heathenish  tribunal  in  Cen- 
tral Africa.  He  could  be  sure  of  a  swift  verdict 
of  Guilty.  No  need  to  consume  days  and  nights 
in  weighing  conflicting  considerations;  quick  as 
a  flash  w^ould  come  the  stern  and  righteous  judg- 


MAIN    ETHICS.  273 

ment.  Quick  as  a  flash  all  men  would  see  the 
blackness  of  the  man,  as  they  see  the  blackness  of 
midnight  when  the  lightning  leaps  athwart  it. 
Especially  if  they  could  have  the  help  of  lights 
and  shadows,  could  see  the  evil  set  over  against  a 
shining  specimen  of  the  opposite  good,  viz.,  a 
man  returning  good  for  evil.  Then  the  evil  would 
stand  out.  Then  beholders  would  say,  How  black 
it  is  !  And  they  would  feel  that  a  world  thorough- 
ly benighted  with  that  sort  of  night  would  not 
long  find  its  way  through  the  spaces. 

X.    CRUELTY. 

Nero  was  cruel.  To  amuse  himself  he  burned 
Rome.  To  accommodate  his  arena  with  just  the 
right  sort  of  sand  he  made  all  ships  from  Egypt 
bring  sand  instead  of  grain  to  the  starving  city. 
To  glut  his  greed,  princes  became  beggars;  to  glut 
his  sensuality,  homes  vanished  like  a  wreath  of 
smoke  when  the  caves  of  ^olus  are  emptied;  to 
glut  his  thirst  for  blood,  poison  and  sword  and 
cross  and  wild  beasts  filled  every  dwelling  in  Rome 
with  a  reign  of  terror.  Multitudes  of  nameless 
men  and  women,  sewed  up  in  sacks  and  smeared 
with  pitch,  burned  as  torches  in  his  gardens;  or, 
wrapped  in  the  skins  of  wild  animals,  were  torn  in 
pieces  by  dogs  under  his  delighted  eyes.  With 
awful   impartiality  he   rioted   on    the   tears   and 

Universal  Belie:?.  iS 


274  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

groans  of  plebeians  and  patricians,  of  pagans  and 
Christians,  of  foreigners  and  Romans,  of  gladi- 
ators and  brutes,  of  enemies  and  friends.     Trem- 
ble, illustrious  Fabii  and  Gracchi;  tremble,  teach- 
ers Burrhus  and  Seneca;   tremble,  wife  Octavia 
and  brother  Britannicus  and  mother  Agrippina, 
and  holy  apostle  Paul — this  time  not  one  of  you 
shall  be  "delivered  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  lion." 
Ah,  what  a  wild  beast!     All  the  deserts  could  not 
turn  out  his  equal.      "Would  that  Rome  had  but 
one  neck;  then  I  could  cut  it  in  two  at  a  blow." 
"teople  may  hate  me,  if  they  only  fear  me." 
With  such  words  on  his  lips  he  did  his  best  to 
pave  his  short  way  with  the  miseries  of  mankind. 
To  say  that  Nero  was  inhuman  is  merely  to 
say  that  wanton   cruelty  has   against   itself  the 
voice  of  humanity.     Is  there  a  sane  man  in  any 
land  or  in  any  time  who  approves  the  Neronic 
way  of  doing,  dares  to  praise  it  and  to  call  it  so 
much  righteousness?     Nay,  is  there  one  (repro- 
bates and  "philosophers"  always  excepted)  who 
does  not  positively  condemn  it  as  wicked  with 
the  prompt  uprising  of  his  whole  soul  ?     If  there 
is,  he  belongs  to  the  museums.     Some  cases  of 
cruelty  and  oppression  are  so  perplexed  by  con- 
siderations of  motive  and  circumstance  that  the 
verdict  of  the  observer  on  them  becomes  hesita- 
ting; but,  given  a  case  of  what  he  recognizes  as 


MAIN    ETHICS.  275 

pure  wanton  cruelty,  and  everybody  sends  out 
his  verdict  of  Guilty  with  a  strong  breath.  Es- 
pecially if  his  eye  can  take  in  at  once  Nero  and 
Antoninus  Pius;  some  Turkish  pasha  enriching 
himself  in  the  speediest  manner  by  remorselessly 
harrying  his  miserable  province  with  bastinadoes, 
prisons,  and  confiscations,  and  the  pitiful,  helpful 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Then  the  veriest  savage,  ga- 
zing on  that  worse  savage  in  imperial  purple, 
would  say  in  his  heart,  "  O  wretch  P^  gazing  on 
Jesus  would  say,  ' '  O  divine  Man  /' '  And  the  ver- 
dict would  be  affirmed  all  over  the  world.  Every 
one  knows  that  he  would  deem  it  a  wickedness 
were  he  himself  writhing  under  the  heel  of  that 
old  Roman  despot.  And  it  is  so  easy  to  see  that, 
were  all  men  thoroughly  cruel  and  oppressive,  no- 
body kind  and  helpful  and  merciful  to  his  fellow, 
the  world  would  be  intolerable  and  society  im- 
possible! 

XI.    PROFANITY. 

His  mouth  is  habitually  foul  with  oaths.  He 
desecrates  the  sanctuaries  of  religion.  He  is  at 
pains  to  pour  contempt  on  sacred  days  and  their 
belongings,  on  prayer  and  praise  and  sacraments 
and  endeavors  to  promote  a  sense  of  religion  in 
the  community.  Perhaps  he  holds  mock  prayer- 
meetings.      Perhaps   he   ridicules   the   idea   that 


276  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

anything  is  sacred,  and  defies  heaven  and  earth 
with  extremities  of  blasphemy  and  sacrilege. 

Of  course  our  Bible  declares  against  all  irrev- 
erence towards  religious  things.  The  name  of 
God  must  be  hallowed,  his  sanctuaries  reverenced, 
his  day  kept  holy,  his  Word  honored  above  all 
other  books.  Every  form  and  degree  of  profaning 
treatment  of  such  things  is  disallowed:  the  gross- 
er forms  and  degrees  are  denounced  as  character- 
izine  the  last  stao^es  in  wickedness  of  the  man 
whose  throat  is  an  open  sepulchre,  whose  mouth 
is  full  of  cursing  and  bitterness,  who  clothes  him- 
self with  cursing  as  with  a  garment. 

But  the  man  to  whom  nothing  is  sacred  gets 
no  encouragement  in  his  attitude  from  any  of  the 
religious  traditions  and  bibles.  Heathendom  and 
Islam  would,  perhaps,  tear  him  limb  from  limb — 
that  man  who  desecrates  mosques  and  temples, 
and  spits  on  revelation  and  worship  and  Deity. 
Christendom  tolerates  him  till  he  proceeds  to 
actual  violence  and  becomes  a  disturber  of  the 
public  peace;  but  she  sets  a  brand  upon  him,  and, 
as  much  as  possible  in  the  complications  of  social 
and  business  life,  passes  him  by  on  the  other  side, 
well  to  the  windward.  Practically,  all  mankind 
believe,  and  have  always  believed,  in  sacred  things 
and  in  treating  them  with  respect.  The  man  who 
reverences  nothing  pleases  nobody,  outrages  the 


MAIN   ETHICS.  277 

common  sentiment  of  the  race,  insults  the  instincts 
and  traditions  of  Jew  and  Gentile,  of  civilised  and 
savage,  of  Christian  and  Moslem  and  Pagan. 
Has  not  somebody  who  knows  said,  "The  very 
heathen  would  condemn  the  irreverent  ways  some- 
times seen  in  Christian  congregations"  ? 

XII.    FALSEHOOD. 

As  to  the  blameworthiness  of  particular  instan- 
ces of  wilful  falsehood,  there  would  be  different 
judgments.  The  matter  of  motives  and  circum- 
stances occasions  perplexity.  But  as  to  the  gen- 
eral obligation  to  veracity,  few  people  among  us 
would  have  any  doubt.  Show  us  a  man  whose 
word  can  never  be  trusted  under  any  circumstan- 
ces; who  plays  "fast  and  loose"  with  all  con- 
tracts, oral  or  written;  whose  notes,  bonds,  and 
oaths  create  no  presumption  that  he  will  speak 
the  truth,  and  there  are  mighty  few  people  who 
would  think  well  of  him.  A  Patagonian  who 
never  saw  a  missionary,  nor  wants  to  see  one, 
would  condemn  the  outrageous  liar  about  as  swift- 
ly as  would  a  trading,  banking,  business-doing 
Londoner.  Once  in  a  while  such  a  man  is  actual- 
ly found,  and  found  out.  Then  nobody  trusts 
him.  Nobody  believes  a  word  that  he  says  because 
he  says  it.  His  most  solemn  declarations  go  for 
nothing.     "Who  says  it?"     "X says  it." 


278  UNIVERSAI.   BELIEFS. 

*'0h,  X says  it,  does  lie!"    and  the  people 

shrug  their  shoulders  and  exchange  knowing 
looks  between  themselves  and  quietly  discount 
the  whole  story.  Who  is  willing  to  be  called  a 
liar  ?  Give  a  man  that  name  and  you  might  as 
well  smite  him  in  the  face.  He  will  find  it  hard 
work  to  forgive  you.  He  knows  that  everybody 
despises  the  notorious  liar. 

"All  liars  shall  have  their  part  in  the  lake 
that  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone,"  says  the 
Christian  religion.  So,  substantially,  say  all  the 
religions.  Ikying  is  almost  universal  out  of  Chris- 
tendom and  quite  too  common  within  it,  and  yet 
no  heathen  is  heathen  enough  to  stand  up  for  it 
in  general,  especially  in  the  gross  forms  of  slan- 
der and  perjury.  A  man  calls  heaven  to  witness 
that  he  will  speak  the  truth,  invokes  its  displeas- 
ure if  he  does  not,  and  then  proceeds  to— lie.  Is 
this  right?  Where  is  the  sacred  book  that  says 
that?  Where  the  government  that  does  not  con- 
demn and,  if  possible,  punish  perjury? 

An  avalanche  of  untruthfulness  affecting  all 
human  intercourse,  making  human  testimony  al- 
ways and  everywhere  wholly  unreliable,  would  be 
deprecated  the  wide  w^orld  over.  Unless  truthful- 
ness were  accepted  as  the  law,  all  deviations  from 
it  w^ould  lose  their  seeming  use.  If  lying  itself 
could  get  no  credence,  what  would  be  the  use  of 


MAIN    ETHICS.  279 

lying?  Its  seeming  use  in  certain  cases  comes 
from  a  belief  that  it  is  not  lying.  Do  not  men 
everywhere  instinctively  feel  that  it  is  better  and 
safer  for  society  that  men  act  on  the  rule  of  "Let 
every  man  speak  the  truth  with  his  neighbor," 
rather  than  on  the  opposite  rule  of  "Let  every 
man  speak  falsehood  to  his  neighbor  as  much  as 
may  suit  his  convenience"?  Suppose  these  two 
rules  embodied  in  the  persons  of  two  men  set  side 
by  side — one  having  no  reverence  at  all  for  the 
truth  and  never  to  be  depended  on  to  speak  it, 
and  the  other  a  man  of  utter  veracity  who  always 
means  what  he  sa3^s,  whose  exactness  of  speech  is 
proverbial,  who  wall  not  stoop  to  deceit,  who 
paints  and  distorts  nothing,  who  would  not  know- 
ingly for  any  consideration  swerve  one  hair's 
breadth  from  actual  fact  even  in  the  heat  of  argu- 
ment, to  whom  the  exact  truth  is  something  sa- 
cred, whose  promise  is  sure  performance,  whose 
word  is  better  than  most  men's  bonds,  who  hates 
and  scorns  a  lie,  who  "swears  to  his  own  hurt 
and  changes  not" — in  short,  who  after  the  man- 
ner of  Another  is  truth  itself.  Has  the  moral 
sense  any  difficulty  in  choosing  between  these 
two?  The  heart  of  humanity  bows  low  before 
that  better  and  right  manly  man.  "  It  is  grand, 
that  way  of  his,"  says  the  universal  conscience, 
and  rincrs  out  enthusiasm  from  all  her  belfries. 


28o  UNIVERSAI.  BELIEFS. 

XIII.    STEALING. 

I^eaving  out  of  view  all  perplexed  cases  (as 
when  a  man  steals  to  satisfy  his  soul  when  hun- 
gry) and  considering  only  such  as  tower  above  all 
fogs  and  clouds,  what  is  the  general  verdict  of 
mankind  on  dishonesty  in  dealing  with  the  prop- 
erty of  others  ?  Suppose  a  man  whose  habit  is 
thievery,  who  will  on  opportunity  steal  your 
handkerchief,  your  pocket-book,  or  your  railroad; 
to  whom  the  only  question  is,  Can  it  be  done 
without  too  much  risk  ?  and  this  being  answered 
affirmatively,  he  is  ready  to  rob  a  henroost,  to 
turn  highwayman,  to  swindle  the  bank  or  Gov- 
ernment, to  sweep  the  seas  as  a  pirate.  He  has 
no  respect  to  any  rights  of  property  save  his  own. 
Nothing  keeps  his  hands  off  his  neighbor's  lands 
or  store  or  strong-box  but  a  selfish  prudence. 
There  is  no  barrier  between  him  and  the  utter 
beggary  of  all  the  rest  of  mankind  but  distance 
and  the  sense  of  danger.  What  seems  honesty 
sometimes  is  merely  regard  to  self-preser\'ation. 
Give  him  a  safe  opportunity  and  he  will  steal  a 
penny  or  a  crown,  rob  a  till  or  a  sepulchre,  as 
may  suit  his  convenience.  Is  such  a  man  ever 
actual  ?     No  matter.     He  is  at  least  possible. 

Now  set  down  such  a  man  in  any  country  and 
confront  him  with  its  religion,  however  debased. 


MAIN    ETHICS.  281 

Will  he  find  himself  approved?  Confront  him 
with  its  laws;  have  they  nothing  to  say  against 
him?  Confront  him  with  its  public  opinion;  will 
that  say  to  him,  "Oh,  excellent  man!"?  The 
public  consider  him  a  public  nuisance.  He  is  a 
standing  threat  to  every  man  who  has  anything 
to  lose.  People  who  can  see  anything  can  see 
that  if  such  a  rogue  is  right,  others  have  no  rights ; 
that  if  every  one  is  allowed  to  devote  himself  to 
preying  on  the  goods  of  his  neighbors  without  re- 
straint, society  is  resolved  into  a  fighting  chaos  of 
Ishmaelites.  No  ;  that  unprincipled  thief  would 
get  condemnation,  and  nothing  but  condemna- 
tion, the  world  over.  Especially  if  set  in  sharp 
contrast  with  the  opposite  sort  of  a  man:  for  ex- 
ample, with  a  man  who,  if  left  alone  in  a  mint, 
would  sooner  take  a  live  coal  into  his  pocket  than 
a  penny;  who  does  not  even  allow  himself  to  covet 
what  does  not  belong  to  him;  who  is  so  above 
suspicion  of  dishonesty  that  were  one  to  charge  it 
upon  him  the  charge  would  fall  flat  as  the  walls 
of  Jericho,  nay,  would  rebound  on  the  accuser. 

"Incredible!"  say  the  people.  "This  is  the 
man  who  during  a  long  life  has  kept  his  hands 
clean  as  a  babe's.  Millions  of  public  money  and 
trust  funds  have  passed  through  them  and  not  a 
farthing  has  stuck.  Widows  and  orphans  have 
left  their  little  all  with  him  and  have  felt  and 


282  UXIVERSAI.   BELIEFS. 

found  it  perfectly  safe.  The  vagueness  and  tech- 
nicalities of  laws  have  given  him  many  a  chance 
of  enriching  himself  safely  at  the  expense  of  oth- 
ers, but  the  old  Roman  has  never  used  one  of 
them,  nor  even  thought  of  doing  so.  Several  times 
dictator,  Fabricius  is  to-day  driving  his  team 
a-field  poor  as  ever.  So  fearful  has  he  been  of 
taking  a  single  denarius  that  did  not  belong  to 
him  that  it  has  always  been  his  practice  in  cases 
of  doubt  to  give  his  neighbor  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt.  The  goods  and  chattels  of  other  people 
are  as  safe  in  his  hands  as  if  stored  away  on  Olym- 
pus— safer.  Some  Diogenes  searching  with  his 
lantern  for  an  honest  man  has  at  last  found  him." 
Stand  this  man  by  the  side  of  his  opposite  in 
any  country  or  age  and  ask  the  consciences  of 
men  to  choose  between  them.  Do  any  doubt  what 
the  choice  would  be?  Not  unless  the  judge  be  a 
reprobate  or  a  "  philosopher. '  ^  The  common 
man,  even  though  a  benighted  heathen,  would 
speak  like  a  flash,  if  not  like  thunder,  in  behalf 
of  the  grand  old-fashioned  honesty.  The  voice 
within  him  would  echo  the  voice  of  the  laws  and 
the  voice  of  the  religions.  He  knows  whom  he 
would  like  to  have  for  a  neighbor.  He  knows 
who  would  be  the  blessing  and  who  the  bane  of 
society.  He  knows  that  a  world  made  up  of  un- 
scrupulous thieves,  highwaymen,  defaulters,  pi- 


MAIN    ETHICS.  2S3 

rates  would  be  an  intolerable  institution.  Dis- 
honesty would  grapple  with  dishonesty,  thief 
would  clutch  the  throat  of  thief,  pirate  would 
board  and  sack  and  murder  pirate,  and  the  old, 
worn-out,  tortured  planet  would  boil  and  toss  and 
shriek  for — annihilation. 

XIV.    SINS   AGAINST  THE   FAMILY. 

The  Bible  gives  the  family  a  divine  warrant. 
It  appoints  separate  households,  husbands  and 
waves  bound  together  for  life,  parents  and  chil- 
dren owing  to  one  another  certain  specified  du- 
ties. Parents  must  be  lovins:  and  faithful  to  each 
other,  and  must  love,  support,  and  properly  train 
their  children.  The  children  must  honor  and 
obey  their  parents;  must,  as  instinct  prompts,  be 
specially  tender  and  helpful  to  one  another.  Such 
is  the  ideal  towards  which  the  members  of  a  fam- 
ily must  strive,  under  the  limitations  of  common 
sense  and  of  a  paramount  obligation  to  God.  For- 
nication and  adultery  are  denounced.  Promises 
and  curses  press  towards  the  fulfilment  of  marital, 
parental,  and  filial  duties. 

The  family  is  practically  universal  in  the 
world.  Its  bonds  are  looser  in  some  places  than 
in  others,  but  everywhere  society  is  distributed 
into  those  little  social  islands  which  we  call  fami- 
lies.    Everywhere  the  common  law,  and  statute 


284  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

law  also  if  such  exists,  demand  marital  fidelity. 
Adultery  is  disgraceful  and  punishable — often 
punished  with  the  utmost  severity.  Both  laws 
and  public  opinion  hold  parents  bound  to  cherish 
and  provide  for  their  children  till  they  are  able  to 
care  for  themselves.  On  the  other  hand,  children 
are  subjected  to  their  parents,  whom  they  are 
bound  to  love  and  honor  as  well  as  obey.  As  we 
gaze  backward  through  the  historic  centuries  we 
find  these  fundamental  laws  existing  in  all  bar- 
barous as  well  as  civilized  countries.  Sometimes 
relaxations  are  made  in  favor  of  the  powerful, 
various  modifications  arise  from  the  weakness  or 
depravity  of  the  times;  but  through  all  the  fog  of 
disturbing  and  distracting  forces  we  see  the  deep- 
est convictions  of  mankind  trying  to  point  in  the 
direction  of  family  purity,  family  government,  and 
family  love — as  the  needle,  subject  to  various  dis- 
tractions, is  always  found  struggling  towards  the 
pole.  Communism  is  plainly  not  the  natural  law 
of  mankind,  if  it  is  of  the  brutes. 

Does  the  moral  sense  of  mankind  echo  its 
creeds,  laws,  and  customs?  It  is  not  unnatural 
to  suppose  that  these  grew  out  of  the  human  con- 
science, or,  what  practically  comes  to  the  same 
thing,  out  of  the  easy  perception  on  the  part  of  all 
men  that  society  could  not  long  stand  the  strain 
of  the  opposite  household  principles. 


MAIN    ETHICS.  285 

But  let  us  see  how  the  individual  would  be  af- 
fected by  showing  him  in  the  concrete,  a  full-blown 
specimen  of  disregard  of  what  we  have  called  the 
family  duties.  Here  he  is — a  communist  in  the 
grossest  sense,  a  scoffer  at  the  sanctity  of  all 
family  ties,  from  the  beginning  a  disobedient 
son,  disrespectful,  turbulent,  rebellious,  defiant, 
a  household  tempest — all  without  provocation,  and 
even  against  a  most  wise  and  tender  parentage. 
Then,  breaking  away  from  the  home  which  he  has 
made  wretched,  he  gives  himself  up  to  the  brute 
within  him.  He  turns  seducer.  He  ruins  inno- 
cence as  widely  as  he  can.  He  descends  to  her 
whose  guests  are  in  the  depths  of  hell.  There  is 
no  paradise  of  purity  and  honor  which  he  is  not 
ready  to  break  into  and  desolate.  At  last  he  has 
the  effrontery  to  ask  some  woman  to  be  his  wife; 
and,  such  is  the  supreme  insanity  of  even  some 
good  women,  she  consents.  Poor  creature!  Can 
the  Ethiopian  change  his  skin  or  the  leopard  his 
spots?  The  spots  grow  larger  on  that  spotted 
man.  Fornication  is  exchanged  for  adultery. 
The  new  ties  go  the  way  of  the  old  ones — into  the 
ditch.  His  home  is  drenched  in  tears  and  shame. 
His  children  come  into  the  world  blotched  and 
scarred  with  his  vices.     Alas! 

Now  let  us  capture  this  brute  with  his  whole 
history,  and  carry  him  about  the  world  for  exhibi- 


286  UNIVERSAL  BELIEFS. 

tion  as  a  showman  might  some  monster.  What 
would  the  world  say  to  him?  Where  is  the  com- 
munity, in  this  age  or  in  any  other,  that  would 
want  him  for  a  citizen,  where  the  family  that 
would  want  him  for  a  member  or  a  guest  ?  What 
husband  or  father  or  brother  whose  secret  heart 
would  not  declare  war  against  him  ?  As  to  such 
a  man  being  morally  approved  by  any  intelligent 
person  between  the  poles  and  this  side  of  the 
judgment  (always  excepting  reprobates  and  "phi- 
losophers"), the  idea  is  preposterous.  He  sees  at 
a  glance  that  if  society  should  come  to  be  made 
upof  such  people  it  would  not  be  "a  little  heaven 
below. ' ' 

The  general  condemnation  would  be  empha- 
sized if  we  could  show  by  the  side  of  that  rotten 
man  his  moral  opposite.  Well,  here  he  is — taken 
at  random  from  thousands  of  Christian  saints 
whose  names  are  not  in  the  calendar.  And  we 
beg  pardon  of  the  white-hearted  and  white-hand- 
ed man  for  standing  him  up,  though  it  be  but 
for  comparison  sake,  by  the  side  of  such  a  thor- 
ough-paced scoundrel  of  a  Nubian.  Now  look  at 
these  two  men  whose  different  habits  and  histo- 
ries are  written  even  in  their  faces — look,  we  say, 
thou  Hottentot,  thou  Patagonian,  thou  old  Ac- 
cadian  or  present  Mormon!  Nothing  to  choose 
between  them  ?     The  one  as  praiseworthy  as  the 


MAIN    ETHICS.  287 

Other — that  monster  of  which  the  world  cannot 
have  too  little,  and  this  saint  of  which  it  cannot 
have  too  much;  that  rotten  man  whose  stench 
perhaps  crosses  continents  and  oceans  and  centu- 
ries, and  this  clean  man,  this  healthy  soul,  this 
incarnate  sanitary  commission  whose  breath 
sweetens  every  breeze  that  passes  him,  this  man 
from  whose  eye  chastity  herself  looks  forth  with 
the  majesty  of  a  queen  or  a  goddess,  this  man 
whose  very  thoughts  are  whiter  than  snow!  No, 
human  nature  was  too  soundly  built  for  that. 
The  space  between  Scipio  the  continent  and  Ap- 
pius  the  decemvir  was  no  trifle,  and  was  easily 
noted  by  the  old  Romans:  that  between  our  two 
specimen  men  (neither  of  whom  is  an  imaginary 
character)  is  planetary,  and  visible  by  all  man- 
kind. For  we  make  no  account  of  a  few  repro- 
bates and  "philosophers."  Mankind  at  large 
can  easily  see  that  a  world  overrun  with  such  men 
as  Sextus  Tarquinius  would  be  too  unclean  to  be 
inhabitable  until  swept  with  the  besom  of  de- 
struction. 

XV.    IMPENITENCE. 

That  one  who  has  done  wrong  ought  to  be 
sorry  and  to  amend  is  a  piece  of  knowledge  uni- 
versally possessed.  The  Bible  demands  repent- 
ance as  a  condition  of  forgiveness.     So  do  all  re- 


2o6  UNIVERSAL   BKUEFS. 

ligions.  Some  count  that  to  be  sinful  which  oth- 
ers do  not;  but  they  all  agree  that  whatever  is 
sinful  should  be  regretted  and  put  away.  For  ex- 
ample, those  particulars  of  character  and  conduct 
considered  in  this  chapter.  All  creeds  and  na- 
tions say  that  these  things  are  wrong — which  is 
the  same  thing  as  saying  that  they  ought  to  be 
hated,  regretted,  and  forsaken.  Show  them  a 
man  practising  them  all,  and  yet  looking  back  on 
his  practice  with  positive  satisfaction,  and  forward 
with  a  resolute  determination  to  repeat  the  sins 
with  even  greater  force,  and  they  would  consider 
him  as  adding  a  new  sin  to  his  list.  Would  not 
any  man  consider  an  offence  against  himself  as  ag- 
gravated by  a  like  impenitent  attitude?  He  might 
feel  able  to  pardon  the  penitent  offender  without 
much  difficulty;  but  if  he  saw  the  sinner  to  be 
altogether  without  compunction  and  bent  on  re- 
peating the  injury  without  limit,  he  would  find 
the  difficulty  greatly  increased. 


XI.  REALIZATION. 


19 


Ob  rairhv  eUog  (j)aiV£-ai  tljv  'jrpay/j.drcjv  Trpoau'^ev  bvruv  tyyvCev 

9'  apcjfliVioV.  EURIPIDES. 

The  appearance  of  tliin;js  is  not  the  same  when  seen  far 
ofT  and  close  at  hand. 


Heu  miseri !  bona  qui  quasrunt  sibi  semper  et  optant, 
Divinam  tamen  banc  communem  et  denique  legem, 
Nee  spectare  oculis,  nee  fando  attendere  curant. 

CLEANTHES. 

Wretched  people !  who  are  always  desiring  and  seeking 
goods,  but  are  at  no  pains  to,  as  it  were,  see  with  their  eyes 
and  hear  with  their  ears  that  primary  divine  truth  which  is 
common  to  all  mankind. 


For  he  endured  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible. 

ST.  PAUL. 


REALIZATION.  291 


XI.  REALIZATION. 

Let  us  inquire  what  would  happen  if  men 
would  duly  ponder,  and  so  come  to  realize  to  them- 
selves, the  great  elementary  religious  truths  com- 
mon to  all  nations  and  ages  and  creeds. 

Of  course  it  would  ennoble  the  whole  strain 
of  their  thoughts  and  feelings.  Dealing  with 
great  ideas  tends  to  give  breadth  to  our  whole 
spiritual  nature.  If  a  man  wants  to  make  him- 
self little— his  understanding,  his  will,  his  heart — 
let  him  confine  his  attention  to  little  objects;  let 
his  thoughts  travel  over  and  over  perpetually 
some  narrow  round  of  trifling  ideas  and  occupa- 
tions. A  Newton  could  become  a  child  under 
such  a  process.  On  the  other  hand,  the  child 
tends  to  become  a  Newton  under  that  process  re- 
versed. The  great  thoughts  gradually  crowd  out- 
ward the  narrow  boundaries  of  the  understanding; 
the  great  conceptions  gradually  expand  the  mind 
in  the  direction  of  great  resolves  and  great  emo- 
tions. So  the  frontiers  are  pushed  abroad  in  every 
direction,  and  the  pigmy  at  last  becomes,  it  may 
be,  a  giant. 

Now  no  man  in  his  senses  will  deny  the  great- 


2  92  UXIVKRSAI.    EELIEFS. 

ness  and  majesty  of  those  primary  religious  ideas 
which  we  have  found  to  be  practically  universal 
in  the  world.  Take,  for  example,  the  idea  of 
human  immortality.  Is  it  a  fact  that  we  are  im- 
mortal beings — not  some  of  us,  but  all  of  us; 
not  the  worthiest  and  finest  human  natures  only, 
but  the  unworthiest  and  coarsest  as  well  ?  What 
really  make  humanity — the  souls  that  quicken 
and  reign  in  these  countless  man-forms  the  world 
over — are  started  forth  on  a  long,  long  career, 
one  so  long  that  its  end  cannot  be  descried  from 
any  summit  that  the  universe  contains.  It  sweeps 
away  beyond  the  traditional  threescore  and  ten. 
It  sweeps  away  beyond  the  remotest  hearse,  fu- 
neral, and  sepulchre.  It  sweeps  away  beyond 
centuries,  beyond  the  lifetime  of  nations,  beyond 
the  lifetime  of  dispensations  and  chronologies  and 
astronomies.  It  crosses  the  whole  breadth  of  an 
eternity  to  come.  This  is  not  a  dream,  vague 
and  illusory,  that  visits  the  couch  of  the  restless 
sleeper.  It  is  not  an  idle  fancy  with  which  poets 
and  theorists  have  seen  fit  to  embellish  their 
works.  Among  the  many  fables  that  have  come 
down  to  us  under  the  name  of  history  or  philoso- 
phy or  science  is  not  to  be  reckoned  the  world- 
wide doctrine — man  lives  for  evef.      It  \sfact. 

And  one  of  the  greatest  of  facts.     This  living 
for  ever  is  no  trifle.     This  outlasting  the  stars  and 


REALIZATION.  293 

abysmal  time  itself  is  nothing  less  than  an  as- 
tounding thing.  Especially  does  it  look  at  us, 
the  actual  heirs  of  this  prodigious  inheritance, 
with  a  face  of  inexpressible  grandeur.  Open  your 
eyes  widely,  O  friend  !  Yoil  will  never  die — you 
who  will  soon  be  sick  and  buried  and  seen  no 
more,  and  who  will  be  universally  said  to  be 
dead — you  will  never  die.  The  ages  will  come 
and  go  without  end;  but  as  they  come  and  as  they 
go  they  will  always  see  you  somewhere;  not  you 
in  ruins,  not  your  remains,  but  the  same  living 
and  conscious  being  that  you  now  are,  without  a 
single  break  in  the  continuity  of  your  existence 
from  the  first.  Is  not  this  something  to  think  of? 
Does  it  not  profoundly  concern  you?  Might  you 
not  reasonably  be  counted  insane  if  you  should 
toss  this  great  fact  aside  among  the  rubbish  of 
your  thoughts  and  forget  it? 

But  the  great  fact  of  human  immortality  is 
only  one  of  a  group  of  kindred  facts  consented  to 
by  all  mankind.  Put  the  great  things  together 
and  we  have  a  group  which,  if  duly  considered 
and  realized  to  our  thought  as  facts,  cannot  but  go 
far  to  moderate  our  sensibility  to  merely  temporal 
conditions  and  experiences.  The  philosophers 
have  long  told  us  that  we  lay  too  much  stress  on 
such  matters.  Religious  people  had  told  us  the 
same  thinof   before.      And  if  it  is  a   fact,  as  all 


294  UXIVERSAI.   BELIEFS. 

creeds  afnrm,  that  there  is  a  God  above  us,  that 
we  are  on  our  way  to  his  judgment-seat,  and  that 
our  condition  for  an  immortality  will  depend  on 
the  characters  we  form  and  the  way  in  which  we 
behave  durins:  this  life — then  it  is  absurd  for  us 
to  feel  towards  the  pains  and  the  pleasures,  the 
successes  and  reverses,  of  this  transient  scene  as 
we  are  apt  to  do.  Why,  O  friend,  are  you  so 
much  depressed  at  mere  worldly  ill-success  or  so 
elated  at  worldly  good-success  ?  Why  do  you  make 
so  much  of  worldly  hardships  and  pains  on  the 
one  hand,  and  so  much  of  worldly  conveniences 
and  pleasures  on  the  other  ?  Why  are  you  so  daz- 
zled by  mere  earthly  greatness  and  so  scornful  of 
mere  earthly  littleness?  Small  occasion  have  you 
for  it — as  you  will  feel  if  you  will  only  face  reali- 
zingly  that  mighty  for  ever  of  yours  that  is  now 
in  the  process  of  being  saved  or  lost.  What  mat- 
ter the  ups  and  downs  of  this  brief  world  in  the 
presence  of  the  interminable  next  ?  Of  what  ac- 
count is  riches  or  poverty,  a  throne  or  a  huckster's 
stall,  renown  or  obscurity,  to  one  so  tremendously 
circumstanced?  He  has  only  to  confront  as  a 
sinner  an  endangered  everlasting  and  his  pyra- 
mid dwindles  to  a  siuQfle  Qrrain  of  sand.  It  is  now 
easy  for  him  to  be  a  stoic.  The  sensibility  that 
used  to  flame  so  fiercely  after  these  momentary 
advantages  of  the  present  is  quieted.     These  are 


REALIZATION.  295 

not  main  things.  They  are  the  smallest  of  things 
to  such  a  being  as  himself — why  should  he  make 
much  ado  about  these  nothiuQ^s? 

The  same  vivid  conception  of  the  endless  ex- 
istence to  which  we  are  destined  (especially  as 
shone  upon  by  the  other  universal  beliefs  that 
have  been  dwelt  upon)  which  goes  to  moderate 
our  naturally  undue  interest  in  merely  temporal 
matters  sfoes  to  enhance  our  interest  in  all  matters 
specially  related  to  the  soul  and  its  preparation 
for  the  future.  No  creed  supposes  that  the  fate 
of  men  after  death  will  be  determined  by  their 
\vorldly  fortunes.  One  may  have  the  highest 
place  here  and  the  lowest  place  there.  Lazarus 
and  Dives  may  exchange  places  in  changing 
worlds.  It  is  what  we  are  as  spiritual  beings;  it 
is  how  we  behave  in  whatever  conditions  here 
befall  us,  which  is  universally  supposed  to  deter- 
mine what  will  be  the  allotments  after  death. 
Forgiveness  of  sin  must  be  had;  a  certain  style  of 
character  must  be  won;  some  scheme  of  duty  must 
be  conscientiously  walked  by.  This  has  always 
been  understood  to  be  the  essential  stepping-stone 
to  final  happiness.  Now  if  in  some  way  this  fact 
becomes  intensely  real  to  us;  if  the  supreme  Law- 
giver, his  government,  his  will,  his  judgment- 
seat,  his  awards  of  eternal  life  and  death  accord- 
ing to  deeds  done  in  the  body,  come  and  stand 


296  UNIVERSAL   BELIEP^S. 

before  us  as  large  as  life,  and  lay  hand  upon  us 
and  look  with  all  their  might  into  our  startled 
eyes — is  it  not  plain  what  will  happen  ?  While 
the  body  and  its  concerns  will  retreat,  the  immor- 
tal soul  and  its  concerns  will  come  to  the  front. 
Duty,  the  favor  of  the  Supreme,  the  methods  of 
gaining  and  preserving  that  favor,  all  possible 
helps  to  these  ends  and  to  a  penitent,  conscien- 
tious life,  will  seem  of  first-class  consequence. 
Instead  of  seeming  as  they  do  to  most  men — as 
things  to  be  postponed  to  everything  else,  things 
to  be  set  aside  and  sacrificed  to  almost  any  petty 
convenience  and  mood — they  will  seem  first  things 
instead  of  last,  primaries  instead  of  satellites,  the 
very  substance  and  marrow  of  our  welfare  instead 
of  its  refuse  outermost  parings.  As  the  miser 
gloats  on  the  gleam  of  his  gold,  as  the  ambitious 
man  kindles  at  a  vision  of  fames  and  thrones,  as 
a  mourner  fastens  greedy  eyes  on  the  sacred  gifts 
and  other  mementoes  of  the  dear  departed,  as  the 
enthusiastic  artist  or  poet  devours  with  rapt  and 
glowing  face  some  vision  of  beauty  in  stone  or 
canvas  or  song,  so,  after  having  looked  our  won- 
derful and  inalienable  dower  of  immortality  in 
the  eye  till  it  has  magnetized  us  into  sympathy 
with  itself,  and  that  mighty  hereafter,  with  its 
universally  recognized  prerequisites  and  awards, 
has  come  to  seem  to  us  as  real  as  our  own  breath- 


REALIZATION.  297 

ing,  living,  conscious  selves,  we  turn  to  look  at 
the  soul  that  is  to  occupy  and  consume  those  eter- 
nal years,  and  at  the  penitent,  conscientious  living 
here  which  alone  prepares  for  that  majestic  life^ 
time,  and  at  everything  fitted  to  help  us  in  this 
great  preparation,  it  is  with  eager  and  hungry 
eyes  that  see  in  them  an  inestimable  value. 

But  we  do  not  stop  here.  Realization  means 
work.  A  vivid  sense  of  the  supreme  value  of  the 
soul's  interests  naturally  carries  with  it  such  solid 
efforts  in  their  behalf  as  are  not  put  forth  for  any- 
thing else — efforts  to  know  duty,  efforts  to  resist 
temptation,  efforts  to  carry  out  in  practice  the 
law  written  in  the  heart  and  in  whatever  sacred 
oracles,  efforts  to  lead  a  life  that  will  bear  the 
scrutiny  of  an  honest  conscience  and  of  a  search- 
ing judgment -day  that  may  come  to-morrow, 
efforts  to  utilize  whatever  helps  may  exist  for  se- 
curing such  a  life.  Is  prayer  one  of  these  helps? 
Then  I  will  watch  unto  prayer.  Is  public  wor- 
ship a  help  ?  Then  I  will  be  at  pains  not  to  for- 
sake the  assembling  in  sanctuaries.  Are  sacred 
days  and  sacred  books  helps  ?  Then  I  will  sa- 
credly keep  and  study  them.  Are  the  prayers 
and  counsels  of  others  helps;  also  my  own  inter- 
cessory prayers  and  counsels  that  react  on  myself? 
Then  I  will  both  bespeak  them  and  give  them. 
I  will  be  very  busy  in  seeking  first  the  kingdom 


298  UNIVERSAI.  BEUEFS. 

of  God  and  his  righteousness,  according  to  my 
honest  understanding  of  these  things.  I  will  be  a 
day-laborer  at  this  if  at  nothing  else.  Trifles 
shall  not  daunt  me.  I  will  not  be  afraid  of  dis- 
comforts and  sacrifices.  Whatever  crosses  lie  in 
the  way  to  crowns  I  will  take  up.  For  I  have 
not  only  consented  to  certain  things,  but  I  have 
pondered  them  and  pondered  them  till  they  have 
come  to  seem  real.  The  shadow^s  have  become 
substance.  Faith  is  turned  to  sifjht.  The  reli- 
gious  facts  affirmed  by  all  nations  glow  on  my  eye 
with  all  the  hues  of  life,  and  I  behold  them  as  I  do 
the  mountains  and  stars.  Beholdinof  what  a  gfreat, 
great  hereafter  awaits  my  own  soul  and  what  per- 
ils threaten  it,  I  not  only  take  kindly  the  exer- 
tions of  friends  in  my  behalf,  but  I  proceed  to  sec- 
ond those  exertions  with  my  own.  If  I  see  any 
strait  gate  to  be  entered,  I  strive  to  enter  it.  If 
any  way  of  working  out  my  own  salvation  with 
fear  and  trembling  presents  itself,  I  at  once  set 
myself  to  work.  Realizing  that  the  same  great 
endangered  hereafter  w^hich  belongs  to  me  belongs 
to  every  member  of  my  family,  I  am  thankful  for 
all  judicious  efforts  in  their  behalf  from  any  quar- 
ter, but  must  decline  to  content  myself  with  them; 
I  must  myself  labor  with  both  hands  to  yoke  the 
saved  immortalities  of  my  children  with  my  own. 
Having  come  to  be  profoundly  alive  to  the  fact 


REALIZATION.  293 

that  my  neighbors  and  countrymen  and  foreigners 
to  the  world's  ends  are  responsible  beings  on  their 
brief  way  to  judgment  and  its  eternal  awards,  I 
not  only  justify  various  enterprises  to  enlighten 
and  rouse  and  save  them,  but  I  feel  impelled  by 
the  humane  instinct  to  join  these  philanthropic 
laborers  with  such  working  forces  as  I  possess.  I 
too  will  give  and  pray  and  speak.  How  can  I  do 
otherwise,  having  before  me  the  absolute  death- 
lessness  of  every  human  being  and  his  limited  pro- 
bation— not  as  an  hypothesis,  a  mythology,  a  spec- 
ulation, an  opinion,  but  as  a  solid  and  pictured 
reality  that  knocks  in  thunder  at  the  gate  of  every 
sense  !  So  it  would  be  with  every  man,  on  Chris- 
tian or  on  heathen  ground,  who,  accepting  the 
doctrines  of  natural  religion,  should  proceed  to 
clothe  them  with  the  flesh  and  blood  of  realizing 
thought. 

And  this  is  the  same  thing  as  saying  that  a 
vivid  realization  of  what  men  have  universally 
believed  in  morals  and  religion  would  reconstruct 
the  whole  plan  and  tenor  of  life  of  most  people; 
for  with  most  people  the  religious  truths  which 
they  intellectually  accept  are  scarcely  more  than 
a  shadow.  They  accept  a  God,  but  their  lives 
proceed  as  if  there  were  no  God.  They  admit 
the  supreme  importance  of  the  soul,  but  they  live 
almost  exclusivelv  for  the  body.     They  confess 


300  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

that  men  are  sinful  and  responsible  and  endan- 
o-ered,  but  thev  do  not  trouble  themselves  on  that 
account.  They  say  that  man  is  immortal,  but,  to 
look  at  them,  one  would  think  that  death  ends  all. 
They  tell  us  that  the  present  life  is  of  no  account 
compared  with  the  future,  but  we  can  see  with 
half  an  eye  that  their  thoughts  and  zeal  are  main- 
ly expended  on  things  that  w^holly  belong  this 
side  of  the  grave;  can  see  that  the  narrow  present, 
with  its  food,  its  dress,  its  houses,  its  shops,  its 
acres,  its  honors,  its  pleasures,  is  completely  vic- 
torious over  their  doctrine  of  another  and  endless 
life.  What  is  the  matter?  Why  are  the  beliefs 
so  inoperative  ?  Is  it  because  they  are  not  genu- 
ine? We  may  not  say  that,  for  we  find  the  same 
incongruity  in  cases  of  absolute  knowledge — as 
when  men  know  to  a  dead  certainty  that  they 
may  die  at  any  moment  and  yet  act  as  if  assured 
of  life  for  years  to  come.  No,  let  us  grant  that 
these  self-contradicting  men  really  believe  what 
they  say;  but  the  truths  they  possess  occupy  only 
the  remote  corners  and  backgrounds  of  thought. 
They  are  distant,  they  are  shadowed.  Other  ob- 
jects intervene  and  supervene.  The  Lazarus  lies 
strengthless  in  his  tomb;  but  roll  away  the  stone, 
bid  the  dead  man  come  forth,  unbind  him  and 
take  away  the  hiding  wraps.  Now  look  at  him, 
all  ve  startled  bystanders  !      See,   he  is  an   alto- 


RKAIJZATION.  301 

getlier  different  tliiiif^  from  what  lie  was !  The 
dead  is  plainly  alive.  What  fires  of  expression 
and  force  in  eye  and  features !  He  who  lately 
could  do  nothing  can  now  do  much.  Now  he  can 
go  abroad  among  men  and  act  upon  them.  It 
would  not  be  strange  if  by  reason  of  him  many 
should  go  away  and  believe  on  Jesus. 

Revitalize  the  dead  truths  of  natural  religion; 
brino^  them  to  the  front  and  set  them  in  the  full 
blaze  of  the  sun;  fasten  steady,  if  startled,  eyes 
on  the  unmuffled  and  gigantic  forms  until  you 
have  fully  drunk  in  their  hugeness  and  majesty, 
and  lo,  you  are  new  men !  The  old  could  not 
stand  the  revelation.  The  great  facts  which  you 
have  vitalized  have  in  return  vitalized  you.  They 
have  looked  you  in  the  eye,  have  spoken  to  you 
with  potential  voices,  have  roughly  shaken  you 
and  said.  Up  and  live  wJiile  you  may^  yo2t  who  ai'e 
to  live  for  ever!  And  you  obey.  New  forces  start 
into  being,  and  the  old  wheel  about  a  full  semi- 
circle. A  new  character  and  way  of  living  begin. 
You  are  born  again.  You  have  at  last  come  to 
REALIZE  that  there  is  a  worshipful  God  above  us 
who  marks  our  wa}'S,  who  hears  our  prayers,  who 
reveals  his  will,  who  will  call  us  to  account,  who 
has  dowered  us  with  immortality,  who  will  pardon 
our  sins  if  repented  of  in  this  world,  otherwise 
never;  and  so  you  have  made  up  your  minds  to 


302  UXIVERSAL    BELIEFS. 

live  as  if  all  these  things  are  true.     A  heathen, 
so  influenced,  would  do  the  same. 

Another  result  of  realizing  these  truths  would 
be  a  profound  conviction  of  the  guilt  and  inexcu- 
sableness  of  even  the  heathen ;  for  we  would  real- 
ize how  much  light  they  have  and  might  have, 
and  how  much  they  might  make  of  it.  We  would 
say.  Surely  God  is  far  from  having  left  himself 
without  a  witness,  even  at  the  ends  of  the  earth 
and  in  the  darkest  times.  The  people  who  know 
of  supreme  Deity  and  his  activity  in  human  affairs, 
who  recognize  the  use  and  obligation  of  prayer  and 
other  forms  of  worship,  to  whom  the  great  facts  of 
human  responsibility  and  immortality  are  alpha- 
betical, who  understand  the  probationary  character 
of  our  present  life  and  the  possibility  of  pardon 
for  sinners  through  repentance  and  expiation,  and 
w^ho  know  also  the  sinfulness  of  such  things  as 
hostility  or  indifference  to  all  religion,  practical 
atheism,  unconscientiousness,  selfishness,  useless- 
ness,  ingratitude,  returning  evil  for  good,  cruelty, 
profanity,  lying,  stealing,  impurity,  and  other  of- 
fences against  both  God  and  man — such  people 
can  hardly  be  said  to  be  poorly  furnished  with 
the  principles  and  rules  of  good  living.  Nay, 
they  are  richly  furnished.  Whether  by  a  prim- 
itive divine  revelation  or  by  native  insight,  or 
by  both — somehow  essential  religious  truth  has 


REALIZATION.  ;^01, 

come  to  their  souls  somewhat  after  the  free  and 
impartial  fashion  in  which  air  and  light  have 
come  to  their  bodies.  The  Decalogue  has  been 
written  into  their  hearts  more  deeply  than  it  ever 
was  into  tables  of  stone.  To  have  so  many  just 
views,  to  know  so  well  v/hat  are  sins  and  to  see 
such  great  motives  against  them,  is  to  have  great 
light. 

Do  they  use  the  light?  Do  they  avoid  the 
sins?  Do  they  repent  of  them  wdien  committed? 
This  is  an  appeal  to  actual  observation  and  his- 
tory, and  one  that  brings  a  very  unsatisfactory 
answer.  The  account  given  in  our  Scriptures  of 
the  moral  condition  of  the  old  Canaanites  applies 
substantially  to  all  the  historic  heathen  peoples. 
Paul's  testimony  as  to  what  the  best  of  them  were 
in  his  day  agrees  perfectly  with  the  picture  of  the 
Roman  world  as  given  in  excavated  Pompeii  and 
Herculaneum,  in  the  satires  of  Persius  and  Juve- 
nal, in  the  epigrams  of  Martial,  and  in  the  histo- 
ries of  Tacitus  and  Suetonius  and  Dion  Cassius. 
As  to  what  the  heathen  now  are,  respectable  trav- 
ellers and  Christian  missionaries  are  sadly  agreed. 
The  picture  is  a  revolting  one — the  picture  one 
end  of  whose  mio^htv  canvas  touches  us  and  the 
other  Adam.  The  whole  world  lietli  in  wicked- 
ness. All  the  generations  have  fallen.  With  the 
overwhelming  majority  their  religious  knowledge 


304  UNIVERSAL    EEUEFS. 

is  practically  luiinfluential.  They  neither  avoid 
known  sins  nor  repent  of  them  when  committed. 
Their  theory  is  vastly  better  than  their  practice. 
So  Paul  condemns  them.  So  their  own  creeds  and 
governments  condemn  them.  So  they  are  con- 
demned by  just  heaven.  Doubtless  they  are  never 
condemned  for  things  w^hich  they  neither  know 
nor  can  know  to  be  WTong.  But,  as  we  have  seen, 
their  darkness  is  so  riddled  by  the  shafts  of  light, 
they  hold  so  much  "truth  in  unrighteousness,'^ 
that  there  must  be  many  counts  in  the  indictment 
against  them  at  a  judgment-day  which  they  are 
all  expecting.  Doubtless  that  day  will  go  hard 
with  them.  Extenuations  may  be  pleaded,  but 
nothing  more.  More  could  be  pleaded  had  the 
law  within  them  been  written  with  invisible  ink, 
and  then  for  the  first  time  brought  out  to  view  by 
the  "fire  that  tries  every  man's  work,  of  what 
sort  it  is."  But,  since  from  the  very  beginning 
that  imperative  Writing  has  been  flaming  out  to 
all  observers  in  every  language  under  heaven,  alike 
in  tropic  heat  and  Arctic  cold,  we  can  only  sadly 
say,  as  does  the  Bible,  "Without  excuse." 

Indeed,  it  may  well  be  claimed  that  they 
would  be  without  excuse  if  they  possessed  only  a 
small  part  of  their  present  religious  knowledge — 
say,  if  you  please,  knowledge  of  only  a  single 
point  of  duty.    For,  if  they  would  conscientiously 


REALIZATION.  305 

do  that  one  duty,  that  very  act,  according  to  both 
Bible  and  natural  law,  would  open  to  them  door 
after  door  of  religious  knowledge  and  attainment. 
Conscientiousness  would  beget  conscientiousness. 
Light  well  used  would  lead  to  light.  And  so  at 
last  all  the  religious  essentials  would  be  reached. 

That  this  is  the  natural  order  of  tilings  does 
not  admit  of  question.  It  is  a  law  of  nature  that 
finite  faculties  of  all  sorts,  from  those  of  the  hum- 
blest plant  up  to  those  of  man,  strengthen  by  suit- 
able use.  Even  the  mosses  and  seaweeds  must 
flourish  in  the  exercise  of  such  active  powers  as 
they  possess.  The  unused  limbs  of  the  Hindoo 
devotee,  that  once  grew  in  size  and  power  as  he 
wrought  and  walked  like  other  people,  began  to 
failTrom  the  day  he  set  himself  up  by  the  wayside 
as  a  motionless  pillar,  and  now  they  are  hardly 
more  than  sticks.  "Use  eyes  and  have  them," 
says  the  old  adage  as  well  as  the  eyeless  fishes  in 
the  great  Kentucky  cave.  Give  any  one  of  your 
senses  nothing  to  do,  and  it  will  not  only  do  noth- 
ing, but  w^ill  in  time  lose  the  power  to  do  any- 
thing. Organs  can  even  be  extirpated  in  the 
course  of  generations  by  lack  of  use,  or  improved 
to  almost  any  extent  by  a  long  course  of  judicious 
practice.  So  of  the  mental  powers.  If  we  want 
our  memories  to  grow  strong  we  must  entrust 
them  with  something  to  keep — give  them  some- 

L'niversnl  Hclic's.  20 


306  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

thing  to  do.  We  must  practice  at  reasoning  if  we 
would  be  good  reasoners,  at  judging  if  we  would 
be  good  judges,  at  studying  Nature  if  we  would  be 
good  scientists. 

And  the  same  law  holds  in  religious  matters. 
Our  conscientiousness  and  ability  to  perceive 
moral  and  religious  truth  improve  by  use  and 
weaken  by  neglect.  Experience  shows  that  there 
is  no  way  of  getting  new  light  so  sure  and  fruitful 
as  that  of  using  the  light  we  already  have — no 
w^ay  so  sure  to  harden  conscience  and  weaken  its 
power  to  discern  between  good  and  evil  as  that 
of  neglecting  to  obey  the  moral  sense  so  far  as  it 
has  clearly  spoken  to  us.  Yonder  man  now  de- 
nies the  fundamental  principle  of  morals;  and  he 
acts  accordingly,  so  far  as  it  seems  safe  to  do  so. 
Has  he  always  been  in  these  depths  of  darkness 
and  profligacy?  By  no  means.  He  has  sunk 
gradually  in  the  process  of  abusing  the  light  with 
which  he  started  in  life.  As  a  child  his  views 
and  feelings  were  quite  different  from  what  they 
now  are.  But  one  day  he  smote  his  moral  sense 
squarely  in  the  face.  He  did  it  again  and  again. 
As  fast  as  he  advanced  in  sin  so  fast  he  retreated 
from  the  primary  religious  truths,  till  at  last  they 
all  disappeared  in  the  distance  like  so  many  ex- 
piring stars;  and  his  ignorance  and  his  wickedness 
became  complete  together. 


RICA  LIZ  ATION.  307 

Another  man  reverses  this  process.  He  begins 
near  where  the  other  leaves  off— that  is  to  say, 
with  hardly  more  than  a  single  ray  of  light;  so 
bad  are  his  heredity  and  early  surroundings.  But 
at  length  he  made  a  conscientious  start  in  the  way 
of  using  his  single  ray.  This  led  to  other  rays 
and  a  more  robust  conscientiousness.  So  finally 
the  little  became  much.  His  consciousness  being 
witness,  this  was  how  it  happened.  He  was  like 
a  man  so  far  within  a  cave  that  only  a  feeble 
glimmer  betrayed  where  it  opened  into  day;  but 
he  set  his  face  towards  the  spark,  he  began  to 
move  towards  it;  as  he  moved  the  light  grew  and 
his  step  became  quicker  and  firmer,  until  at  last 
he  stands  at  the  cave's  mouth  and  sees  the  sun. 

This  is  the  natural  way  of  all  religious  advance, 
whether  in  knowledge  or  goodness.  It  is  a  very 
reasonable  way.  Experience  being  witness,  it  is  a 
very  successful  way.  And  certainly  it  is  the  way 
taught  in  the  Bible.  The  Book  gives  us  to  un- 
derstand that  God,  if  need  be,  will  come  to  the 
help  of  natural  law,  and  will  see  to  it  that  the 
light  that  is  used  shall  be  the  light  that  grows. 
To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given.  Two  talents 
well  employed  shall  become  five.  It  is  not  the 
largeness  of  our  stewardship,  but  our  good  beha- 
vior in  it,  that  draws  divine  favors.  Even  as  some 
wealthy  human  father  who  sees  his  son  managing 


30^  rXIVKKSAT.    LKIJKFS. 

well  a  small  capital  will  gladly  put  more  into  his 
liands,  so  will  do  the  wealthy  Heavenly  Father. 
This  is  what  he  is  said  to  have  done  to  Cornelius. 
The  centurion  was  devout  and  exemplary  on  the 
basis  of  very  scanty  knowledge;  so  God  gave  him 
ampler  capital.     And  God  w^ill  treat  other  heath- 
en in  the  same  large  way  if  they  will  conscien- 
tiously set  about  the  single  duty  which,  by  suppo- 
sition, they  happen  to  know.     Infancy  is  the  state 
that  specially  needs  help.     What  should  we  think 
of  a  father  who  should  decline  to  do  anything  for 
his  child  till  he  had  ceased  to  be  a  child  ?     That 
sort  of  kindness  that  stands  ready  to  help  one  just 
as  soon  as  he  no  longer  needs  help  (a  very  com- 
mon sort  among  men)  is  not  of  the  most  magnifi- 
cent sort,  nor  is  it  such  as  we  are  taught  to  expect 
from  God.     He  does  not  despise  the  day  of  small 
things.     Instead  of  breaking  the  bruised  reed  and 
quenching  the  smoking  flax,  he  does  all  he  can  to 
strengthen  and  kindle.     He  does  not  stand  aloof 
till  the  moral  infant  has  become  the  full-grown 
man,  till  the  whisper  has  broadened  into  thunder, 
till  the  snail-pace  has  quickened  into  the  pace  of 
a  giant  or  a  planet;  but,  as  every  true  friend  does, 
he  steps  in  with  his  help  when  help  is  most  need- 
ed— at  the  rough  and  struggling  beginnings  of  a 
new  life.     He  will   tenderly  support  those  first 
feeble  steps  in  the  narrow  way.      Nay,  he  will 


RKALI^CATIOX.  309 

take  the  lambs  in  his  arms  and  carry  them  in  his 
bosom.  He  will  do  the  best  he  can  to  cherish  the 
spark  into  flame,  the  dawn  into  day,  the  almost 
death  into  viQ:orous  life.  Does  he  not  run  to  meet 
returning  prodigals  ? — will  he  not  meet  them  afar 
off,  as  far  as  China  and  the  Antarctic  ?  In  every 
nation  he  that  feareth  God  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness (such  as  is  known  to  him)  is  accepted.  In 
every  land  to  do  God's  will  (as  far  as  known)  is  to 
know  of  the  doctrine.  All  over  the  world  honest 
beginners  in  the  right  way  shall  have  doors  opened 
before  them  which  no  man  can  shut,  and  shall  go 
from  strength  to  strength.  To  the  upright,  on 
however  small  a  scale,  light  shall  arise  in  their 
darkness,  and  they  that  are  faithful  in  that  which 
is  least  will  have  an  opportunity  to  be  faithful 
also  in  much,  and  will  improve  the  opportunity. 

This,  then,  is  what  we  can  be  sure  of  in  the 
case  of  any  heathen.  'Supposing  him  to  know 
but  a  single  duty,  if  he  would  conscientiously  set 
himself  to  perform  that  duty  he  would  receive 
light  on  other  points,  and  the  same  conscientious- 
ness that  led  him  to  do  right  at  first  would  lead 
him  to  do  right  again;  then  there  would  be  a  still 
further  increase  of  light  followed  by  a  still  further 
enlargement  of  obedience.  So,  step  by  step,  he 
might  come  to  almost  any  stage  of  knowledge  and 
virtue. 


3IO  UNIVERSAI.    BEI^IEI'S. 

Just  as  by  entering  a  house  by  any  one  door 
all  of  its  many  rooms  become  accessible,  and  will 
in  course  of  time  actually  be  entered  if  permanent 
residence  is  proposed,  so  whoever  enters  the  king- 
dom of  God  at  a  single  point  of  duty  acquires  the 
freedom  of  the  whole  palace,  and  in  time  will  lib- 
erally use  his  freedom. 

And  here,  too,  we  have  Ariadne's  thread. 
However  far  one  may  be  in  the  mazes  of  the 
dreadful  labyrinth  of  error  and  sin,  he  has  only  to 
draw  on  some  single  thread  of  duty  and  follow  its 
leadings  carefully  in  order  to  find  his  way  out 
into  light  and  safety.  Many  a  man  has  escaped 
something  worse  than  a  Minotaur  in  this  way. 

What  is  this  but  the  common  way  of  mount- 
ing to  high  places  by  a  flight  of  steps  ?  One  is  at 
the  base  of  the  tower;  but  he  wants  to  be  at  the 
summit  where  the  air  is  pure,  where  the  light  is 
strong,  and  where  the  prospect  is  glorious.  He 
does  not  hope  to  pass  the  whole  intervening  space 
at  a  leap;  but  he  can  easily  pass  it  by  a  succession 
of  small  upward  movements.  He  has  only  to 
mount  the  first  brief  step,  and  then  the  second 
equally  brief,  and  so  on  till  the  ascent  is  comple- 
ted and  his  horizon  is  wonderfully  enlarged.  All 
that  is  needed  is  a  starting  with  a  clear  purpose 
to  advance  as  the  way  opens.  And  this  is  the 
case  of  the  heathen.     All  that  they  need  in  order 


REALIZATION.  311 

to  rise  to  heights  of  grace  and  illumination  is  to 
take  a  single  conscientious  step  in  duty  with  an 
honest  purpose  to  advance  as  the  way  may  open. 
Is  not  a  man  inexcusable  who  will  not  do  as  much 
as  this  ? 

It  is  night.  From  the  dark  country  a  man  is 
groping  his  way  to  his  city  home.  At  length  he 
descries  a  single  light  and  makes  his  way  to  it. 
High  on  its  pillar  bla/jes  the  first  street  lamp.  By 
its  aid  he  reads  the  neighborhood,  takes  his  bear- 
ings, and  is  able  to  advance  to  another  lamp.  So 
one  lamp  introduces  another,  until  finally  he  gets 
safely  to  his  home — his  brilliantly  illuminated 
home  that  is  waiting  to  receive  him  to  all  manner 
of  comfort, and  rest.  Under  the  circumstances  his 
success  was  assured  from  the  moment  he  began  to 
guide  his  steps  by  that  first  lamp.  Further  ad.vance 
was  provided  for  by  the  city  authorities  that  had 
graded  and  paved  the  streets,  set  up  guide-boards 
at  all  corners,  sent  out  on  their  beats  watchmen 
who  must  answer  all  reasonable  questions;  above 
all,  set  up  that  cordon  of  flaming  lamps  at  just  in- 
tervals. Time  would  be  needed,  open  eyes  would 
be  needed,  patient  and  perhaps  tiresome  walking 
would  be  needed;  but  he  was  now  fully  within 
the  embrace  of  a  great  system  of  aids  which,  sup- 
posing in  him  a  real  disposition  to  use  them,  would 
surelv  brine  him  to  his  destination.    So  anv  heath- 


31-  UNIVERSAL   BELIEFS. 

en,  starting  out  on  a  conscientious  course  at  any 
one  point  of  duty,  will  be  sure  to  be  brought  on 
homeward  towards  the  heart  of  the  great  city  of 
truth.     It  may  be  in  part  by  natural  law;  it  is  sure 
to  be  in  part  by  the  immediate  agency  of  Him  who 
has  said  of  himself,    "Good  and  upright  is  the 
lyord;  therefore  will  he  teach  sinners  in  the  way." 
But  by  this  means  or  by  that,  or  by  both,  he  who 
seeks  shall   find,  and  he  who   knocks  shall  find 
an  open  door.     Must  he  knock  as  if  with  a  bat- 
tering-ram ?     Must  he  call  with  an  earthquaking 
voice,  as  only  some  broad-chested  Christian  saint 
can  call  ?     Do  not  believe  it.      Sincerity  will  set 
earth  and  heaven  in  motion  for  his  help.     This 
we  may  confidently  expect  from  Him  who  willeth 
not  that  any  should  perish,  who  is  Father  enough 
to  be  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  befriend  his  chil- 
dren. 

I  ask  again.  Is  not  the  heathen  without  excuse 
who,  knowing  only  a  single  point  of  duty,  de- 
clines to  make  even  a  bcgiiming  in  the  way  of 
conscientious  living? 


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